The Other Poem

Empty windows, empty balconies, 

clouds that seem desultory, 

only the tree-tops shuffle slightly 

in a light wind, 

birds go by too fast for the scene. 

Nothing else to describe. 

Should I lift my head? 

Might there be something 

to entertain you 

over the ledge and in the street below? 

The sea is close by – 

as it says in the other poem – 

but here it is really true. 

The sea is a wall it says, 

But that I cannot confirm. 

I could seek out the gulls 

and watch them alight, 

taking their nodding 

as they walk for greeting, 

but that would be fanciful. 

The wind from the sea 

is now grand and slow – 

but that too is from the other poem. 

Truthfulness may be all. 

I just want a sound I might add in. 

Jeffrey Wainwright was born in Longton, one of the six towns of Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, on 19 February 1944. He was Lecturer in English & American Studies at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, Visiting Assistant Professor, Long Island University, Brooklyn, New York, Lecturer in English at Manchester Polytechnic, later Manchester Metropolitan University. In Autumn 1985 he was Judith E Wilson Fellow in Creative Writing, University of Cambridge. In 1999 he was made Professor of English at Manchester Metropolitan University. He is author of  The Important Man (Northern House.1971), Heart's Desire (Carcanet, 1978), Selected Poems (Carcanet,1985), The Red-Headed Pupil (Carcanet, 1994, Out of the Air (Carcanet, 1999), Clarity or Death (Carcanet, 2008, The Reasoner (Carcanet Press, 2012).

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