The Unforgettable John Smith
More interesting stuff surfacing as I pack up and browse (mostly the latter) through my books. Settled upon a collection of poems by a relatively obscure poet with this unforgettable name: John Smith. Evidently he got into the Literary agency business after writing poems and plays – mostly in the 1950s – and editing the Poetry Review. Very straight forward lyrical pieces they are. Quite moving. This first stanza from
Never Come Back:
Of I should ever return, never speak
Lest the answer overthrow you; the voice
Falling in such different fashion, wreck
Your memory of me with its altered noise.
Do not look, either or attempt recognition;
The lines have surely fallen all awry
In sad precipitation from their first position;
They look less likely now under this later sky.
and this from
Ode: To my Mother
Beyond all possible meaning of the impossible word
Love, is my regard for you, most absolute and especial care.
You, who as once with your blood’s warmth encircled me,
Now with the enveloping devotion and love of age
Watch where I walk, so that the troubled air
Seems calmed by your thought for me, and I take courage
From your care, from your grace some felicity,
As you, through my senses, know all things felt, seen, heard.