Saturday, April 9, 2011

what is the language using us for?

What is the language using us for?
I don't know. Have the words ever
Made anything of you, near a kind
Of truth you thought you were? Me
neither. The words like albatrosses
Are only a doubtful touch towards
My going and you lifting your hand

To speak to illustrate an observed
Catastrophe. What is the weather
Using us for where we are ready
With all our language lines aboard?
The beginning wind slaps the canvas.
Are you ready? Are you ready?

--W. S. Graham, from Implements in Their Places in Collected Poems 1942-1977 (London: Faber, 1979), pp. 195-96.

No comments: