Skip to main content

New Poem by Todd Swift

Moments In The Life Of

Considerably later, having fallen from the train.

The water cooler ran like a river of ice.

Dancing among ourselves, how jolly.

Passing judgment on the elevator man.

Brushing rain from our lapels we snorted.

Once, a passing thought fixed itself in your eye.

Several packages went missing, duly missed.

There was that altercation over a pay rise.

Hat stands may need to be adjusted occasionally.

Filter tip does not mean tipping out on the carpet.

She stayed long enough to leave an impression.

The favourite air conditioning unit broke.

Time passed in such a way it was barely noticed.

Over the weekend we all did our own thing.

Dancing on that occasion left her breathless.

He looked a bit like that fellow in the pictures.

Dashing back and forth on the avenue.

Buzzing him in she forgot to mention Christmas.

Snow came across a little ham-fisted just this once.

After all was said and done it had been a lark.

Rain in lashings and a steady line of mourners.

There was a flash like a memory only it was a bird.

poem by Todd Swift

Comments

Poetry Pleases! said…
Dear Todd

I hit the like button! Please keep up the innovative work.

Best wishes from Simon
leah fritz said…
I commented once and I don't think it went through. I think this is a wonderful stream-of-memory poem that really works. It's very moving.
With love, Leah

Popular posts from this blog

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart?  A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional.  Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were.  For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ?  Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets.  But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ?  How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular.  John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se....

Poetry vs. Literature

Poetry is, of course, a part of literature. But, increasingly, over the 20th century, it has become marginalised - and, famously, has less of an audience than "before". I think that, when one considers the sort of criticism levelled against Seamus Heaney and "mainstream poetry", by poet-critics like Jeffrey Side , one ought to see the wider context for poetry in the "Anglo-Saxon" world. This phrase was used by one of the UK's leading literary cultural figures, in a private conversation recently, when they spoke eloquently about the supremacy of "Anglo-Saxon novels" and their impressive command of narrative. My heart sank as I listened, for what became clear to me, in a flash, is that nothing has changed since Victorian England (for some in the literary establishment). Britain (now allied to America) and the English language with its marvellous fiction machine, still rule the waves. I personally find this an uncomfortable position - but when ...

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and  Silence of the Lambs .  I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".