Talkin' Heids #9 ~ Iain Crichton Smith (1928-1998)

The TV

The sun rises every day
from moving shadows -
on the TV

We did not believe in the existence of Ireland
till we saw it many nights -
on the TV.

He knows more about Humphrey Bogart
than he knows about Big Norman -
since he got the TV.

Said Plato -
'we are tied in a cave' -
that is, the TV.

A girl came into the room
without perfume without expression -
on the TV.

At last he lost the world
as Berkely said -
there was nothing but the TV.

He bought War and Peace,
I mean Tolstoy,
after seeing it on the TV.

When he switched off the TV
the world went out -
he himself went out.

His hands did not come back to him
or his eyes
till he put on the TV.

A rose in a bowl on the TV set,
the things that are in the world,
the things that are not.

He found himself in the story.
He was in the room.
He didn't know where he was.

You, my love, are dearer to me
than Softly Softly
than Sportsnight with Coleman.

'In locked rooms with iron gates' -
but, my love,
do they have TV?