success

reuben's favourite poems

success

by peter redgrove

I

I was invincibly attracted to her;
Only an abyss can exercise such fascination.

II

I paused under a locust-tree, lighting a cigarette:
The water has our mark on it still.

III

She told me at night, the time of the living breath;
We took a shower in perfect darkness.

IV

Was that the distant roar of lions
Or the sounds of the clouds travelling?

V

When a pregnant women bows to a fertile idol
The unborn child bows as she does, within the temple.

VI

So I went out and walked round the lake again
To listen to the sky; approaching thunder
Printed its paw-marks across the water.