from Gaudete by Ted Hughes
Waving, goodbye, from your banked hospital bed,
Waving, weeping, smiling, flushed
It happened
You Knocked the world off, like a flower-vase.
It was the third time. And it smashed.
I turned
I bowed
In the morgue I kissed
Your temple’s refridgerated glazed
As rained-on graveyard marble, my
Lips queasy, heart non-existent
And straightened
Into sun-darkness
Like a pillar over Athens
Defunct
In the glaring metropolis of cameras.
from "Gaudete", by Ted Hughes.
September 14th, 2008 at 3:10 PM
Hughes never did much for me (and I’ll never forgive him for what he did to Sylvia.) The confessional poetry styles of Snodgrass and Sexton are where I find my enjoyment.Cheers,Michael