Poem 192

This is a found poem, discovered titled and shaped by me in 1984 as an exercise in the Original Composition course … I found it somewhere in the radio listings at the back of The Listener …

… at the beginning of the following year I had to get my course of study signed off by an English professor who when he saw my name said ‘Oh I’ve got a poem of yours’ … I said I didn’t think so (not having been published yet) but sure enough he pointed to this pinned on his noticeboard above his desk … he was an authority on William Blake so Bill Manhire had given him a copy … nice way to start the year …

Open Marriage

James Blake prophesied
that 1757 would be the beginning
of a new world
his son William
as it turned out
was born in that year

as a child
Blake saw a tree filled with angels
and angelic figures
walking
in middle age
he saw and talked to Moses
Homer Dante and Milton

I have little of his company his wife
once said

he is always in paradise