Bill Manhire In England in November; new poem

Eyewear is very pleased to welcome Bill Manhire, New Zealand's leading poet of his generation, to its pages today with a poem.  Manhire will be appearing at various events next week and beyond in England.  Here is his schedule:


November 2: a reading, as part of the launch of Simon Armitage's Poetry Parnassus project; Poetry International.


November 3: talk and reading, Kingston University, Kingston-upon-Thames, Penrhyn Road Campus, John Galsworthy Building, JG4002, 4-5 pm; all welcome; admission free.  Introduction by Anna Smaill.

November 3: Reading poems by Edwin Morgan as part of a tribute evening called The Scots Makar; Poetry International.

November 5-7: Aldeburgh Festival


November 9: the Gerald Finzi Reading at the University of Reading, 6.30 pm.

The Ruin

Storm roared in the roof: a rocking of towers.
Giants stood then stumbled.

Once they strode into weather and wind.

Where stairs went down, only these mounds.

Then more is missing.

Walk toward the baths: they are missing.
Toward ramparts and ring-hall: missing.
Toward Romans and Saxons:
missing and missing.

Each man under-taken.

Generation and generation.
 

Here is a gate made of frost,
Here tiles were torn away and [missing].

Here was fire. Here was [lost]

And here is the true charred text.

See how the ruin rides among riddles

– anchor and inkhorn and loom –

bumping against whatever happens next.

Oh earth went over them all:

chalice and harp, wanderer and wife,

palace and tented place.

Grey moss on red stone . . .

And here and there a glance, a gleam

a home [but missing]

dwelling we almost glimpse across the water.

reprinted with permission of the author from The Victims of Lightning (Victoria University Press, 2010).