Your house silent by the speaking sea

It's the centenary of W.S. Graham's birth this year ...

... here's one of his many marvelous poems (this one dedicated to his wife), as taken from within the pictured 2005 collection:


I Leave This at Your Ear
For Nessie Dunsmuir

I leave this at your ear for when you wake,
A creature in its abstract cage asleep.
Your dreams blindfold you by the light they make.

The owl called from the naked-woman tree
As I came down by the Kyle farm to hear
Your house silent by the speaking sea.

I have come late but I have come before
Later with slaked steps from stone to stone
To hope to find you listening for the door.

I stand in the ticking room. My dear, I take
A moth kiss from your breath. The shore gulls cry.
I leave this at your ear for when you wake.

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W. S. Graham (1918 - 1986)

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