Surrender everything like this:
flowers are falling.
Let it all go like this:
the evening tide holds nobody back.
Layers in the sea:
jellyfish,
filefish,
sea squirts,
rockfish,
flatfish, sea bass,
barracuda,
plaice like grandmother’s fan,
and right at the bottom: sea anemones.
Needless to say
life continues after certain death.
There should be more sins on earth.
Spring days are passing.
First Person Sorrowful, from which this poem is taken, published by Bloodaxe Books,with a Foreword by
Sir Andrew Motion, will be launched at this year’s Aldeburgh Poetry Festival, 2-4 November 2012.
