'Moors' by Ted Hughes

Yesterday I went to the final day of the 'Britain in Focus' exhibition at the Science and Media Museum (formerly the National Photographic Museum) in Bradford. The items were curated and presented by Eamon McCabe, a reflection of his own favourites and influences: a spin off from the BBC Four series.  Fay Godwin's work with the camera and as an environmental campaigner was highlighted.

 From Godwin's beautiful collaboration with Ted Hughes, 'Elmet', I have had difficulty selecting just this one poem and its corresponding photo. Incidentally, in Mytholmroyd, where Hughes came from, the only public memorial I have come across (apart from the 'blue plaque' in Aspinall Street) are the title and first two lines of this poem inscribed around the sculpture in the small car park near the church.

Moors

 Are a stage
For the performance of heaven.
Any audience is incidental.

 A chess-world of topheavy Kings and Queens
Circling in stilted majesty
Tremble the bog-cotton
Under the sweep of their robes.

 Fools in sunny motley tumble across,
A laughter - fading in full view
To grass-tips tapping at stones

 The witch-brew boiling in the sky-vat
Spins electrical terrors
In the eyes of sheep.

 Fleeing wraith-lovers twist and collapse
In death-pact langour
To bedew harebells
On the spoil-heaps of quarries.

 Wounded champions lurch out of sunset
To gurgle their last gleams into potholes,

 Shattered, bowed armies, huddling leaderless
Escape from a world
Where snipe work late.




Paved path above reservoir at Lumbutts by Fay Godwin

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

'The Truisms' by Louis MacNiece

Image
My Dad was a treasury of truisms (or maxims?) the majority of which he would be very proud  to acknowledge would be banned as being totally unsuitable material for the internet. Mephistopheles by choice but Faust by fate in Goethe's account of the reconciliation of man's divided nature. The one he lived by though was 'profess only evil, but do only good'.  Too easy to get that the wrong way round for me.  Lofty thoughts, noble purpose, universal benevolence, marvellous aspirations, pious hopes, the best of intentions and the grandest of plans are all to be applauded, but what counts, what makes the difference, what makes a man is what he actually does.  The rules are strict on this, there is no court of appeal. Sorry it took me so long to work that one out Dad, but thanks for the tip. Make a mental note of the last line because I have a poem to come shortly from Hermann Hesse that will have relevance. THE TRUISMS His father gave him a box of truisms
Read more

'Fanfare for the Makers' by Louis Macneice

Image
Another poem that has lasted the course: first read in my 1967 copy of the 'Oxford Book of English Verse', it never fails to create a sense of optimism and purpose. FANFARE FOR THE MAKERS A cloud of witnesses. To whom? To what? To the small fire that never leaves the sky. To the great fire that boils the daily pot. To all the things we are not remembered by, Which we remember and bless. To all the things That will not notice when we die, Yet lend the passing moment words and wings. So fanfare for the Makers: who compose A book of words or deeds who runs may write As many who do run, as a family grows At times like sunflowers turning towards the light. As sometimes in the blackout and the raids One joke composed an island in the night. As sometimes one man’s kindness pervades A room or house or village, as sometimes Merely to tighten screws or sharpen blades Can catch a meaning, as to hear the chimes At midnight means to share them, as one man In ol
Read more

'After Visiting Hours' by UA Fanthorpe

Image
Another recent interesting stay in hospital for an emergency operation brings to mind this old favourite of Ms Fanthorpe's..... I know that Jill and Jo will be interested at least.... Don't we all imagine how much more of a success we could make of life if we started off with say, the best of seven decades of life experiences? That's nonsense in medicine - innocence, naive enthusiasm, a complete ignorance of the subjective suffering of patients, an astonishing capacity to dissociate from horrible circumstances, intolerable demands, pressures and expectations- all these are fundamental survival techniques for young medical and nursing professionals just to get through the working day - and the loneliest hours after visiting hour left to you and a hundred or so patients. It is very often like a war - but maybe in the right company, good colleagues, with the kindness, good will and forgiveness of one's patients (the best are those that, despite experience, keep coming b
Read more