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Essential Poems from the Staying Alive Trilogy

Page 14

by Neil Astley


  Michael Longley 103

  Thomas Lux 53

  Norman MacCaig 104, 116

  Louis MacNeice 41, 89

  Derek Mahon 42, 78

  Czesław Miłosz 38

  Edwin Morgan 59, 85

  Les Murray 90

  Pablo Neruda 82

  Alden Nowlan 55

  Naomi Shihab Nye 91

  Dennis O’Driscoll 67

  Sharon Olds 56

  Mary Oliver 11, 22

  Alice Oswald 64

  Fernando Pessoa 14

  Rainer Maria Rilke 22

  Rumi 13

  Gjertrud Schnackenberg 57

  Ken Smith 46

  William Stafford 32

  Anne Stevenson 49, 51

  Ruth Stone 16

  Arundhathi Subramaniam 120

  Anna T. Szabó 52

  Wisława Szymborska 17

  Toon Tellegen 32

  R.S. Thomas 73

  Tomas Tranströmer 36

  Derek Walcott 66

  James Wright 24

  Adam Zagajewski 105

  INDEX OF TITLES

  POEMS FROM THESE ANTHOLOGIES:

  [SA] Staying Alive

  [BA] Being Alive

  [BH] Being Human

  A Brief for the Defense, 97 [BH]

  A Confession, 78 [BH]

  A Disused Shed in Co. Wexford, 42 [SA]

  A Little Tooth, 53 [BH]

  A Man in His Life, 88 [BH]

  After Making Love We Hear Footsteps, 54 [BA]

  All of These People, 103 [SA]

  Alone, 36 [SA]

  An Absolutely Ordinary Rainbow, 90 [SA]

  An Arundel Tomb, 64 [BA]

  Archaic Torso of Apollo, 22 [BH]

  As I Go, 27 [BH]

  At the Fishhouses, 38 [BA]

  Atlas, 62 [BA]

  Aubade, 112 [SA]

  Begin, 26 [SA]

  Being the third song of Urias, 46 [SA]

  Burlap Sack, 96 [BH]

  Clearances, FROM, 48 [BA]

  Common and Particular, 114 [BH]

  Could Have, 17 [BH]

  Darling, 117 [BH]

  Dawn Revisited, 18 [BH]

  Eden Rock, 118 [SA]

  Encounter, 38 [SA]

  Entirely, 89 [SA]

  For Desire, 60 [BA]

  Four Quartets, FROM, 121 [BA]

  From Blossoms, 80 [BA]

  Funeral Blues, 115 [SA]

  Gravy, 119 [BA]

  Great Things Have Happened, 55 [BA]

  Happiness, 84 [BA]

  Harlem [2], 21 [BH]

  Hijab Scene #7, 109 [BH]

  I drew a line, 32 [BH]

  It’s This Way, 108 [BH]

  Ithaka, 28 [BA]

  Kindness, 91 [BA]

  Late Fragment, 124 [SA]

  Living, 14 [SA]

  Love After Love, 66 [BA]

  Love Song: I and Thou, 63 [BH]

  Love, 50 [BA]

  Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota, 24 [SA]

  Memorial, 116 [BH]

  Migratory, 34 [BA]

  Missing God, 67 [BA]

  Musée des Beaux Arts, 98 [BA]

  Nothing Is Lost, 94 [BH]

  O Taste and See, 79 [BA]

  Of Gravity and light, FROM, 72 [BH]

  One Art, 93 [SA]

  Otherwise, 20 [BA]

  Poem for a Daughter, 49 [SA]

  Postscript, 124 [SA]

  Prayer, 120 [BH]

  Second-Hand Coat, 16 [BH]

  September Song, 101 [SA]

  Shape of Time, FROM, 12 [BH]

  She Leaves Me, 52 [BH]

  Sheep Fair Day, 70 [BA]

  Silence, 96 [BH]

  Snow Melting, 57 [SA]

  Snow, 41 [SA]

  Starlight, 47 [BA]

  Stationery, 73 [BA]

  Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, 33 [SA]

  Strawberries, 59 [BH]

  Sweetness, 106 [SA]

  Sweetness, Always, 82 [BA]

  Table, 15 [BH]

  Temptation, 25 [SA]

  The Bright Field, 73 [BH]

  The Diameter of the Bomb, 100 [BA]

  The door, 19 [SA]

  The fly. 98 [SA]

  The Girl, 45 [BH]

  The Guest House, 13 [BH]

  The Journey, 22 [SA]

  The Layers, 29 [BH]

  The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, 74 [BH]

  The Place Where We Are Right, 99 [BH]

  The Present, 86 [BA]

  The Red and the Black, 104 [BA]

  The Road Not Taken, 31 [SA]

  The Simple Truth, 81 [BA]

  The Victory, 51 [BA]

  ‘The washing never gets done…’, 87 [BH]

  The Way It Is, 32 [BH]

  The Weighing, 95 [BH]

  They’ll say, ‘She must be from another country’, 109 [SA]

  This Hour, 56 [BH]

  Though There Are Torturers, 107 [BH]

  ‘To be great, be whole…’, 14 [BH]

  Trio, 85 [BH]

  Try to Praise the Mutilated World, 105 [BA]

  Unwittingly, 44 [SA]

  Wedding, 64 [BA]

  Wild Geese, 11 [SA]

  Wild strawberries, 58 [BA]

  You Don’t Know What Love Is, 61 [BH]

  About the Author

  Neil Astley is editor of Bloodaxe Books, which he founded in 1978. His books include novels, poetry collections and anthologies, most notably the Bloodaxe Staying Alive trilogy: Staying Alive (2002), Being Alive (2004) and Being Human (2011), which were followed by Essential Poems from the Staying Alive Trilogy (2012).

  His other anthologies (all these from Bloodaxe) include Pleased to See Me: 69 very sexy poems (2002), Do Not Go Gentle: poems for funerals (2003), Passionfood: 100 Love Poems (2005), Soul Food: nourishing poems for starved minds [with Pamela Robertson-Pearce] (2007), Earth Shattering: ecopoems (2007) and the DVD-book In Person: 30 Poets filmed by Pamela Robertson-Pearce (2008).

  He has published two novels, The End of My Tether (Flambard, 2002; Scribner, 2003), which was shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award, and The Sheep Who Changed the World (Flambard, 2005). In 2012 Candlestick Press published his selection of Ten Poems About Sheep in its renowned pamphlet series.

  He received an Eric Gregory Award for his poetry and was given a D.Litt from Newcastle University for his work with Bloodaxe Books. He lives in Northumberland.

  Copyright

  Selection, introduction and notes copyright © 2012 Neil Astley.

  Copyright of poems rests with authors and other rights holders as cited in the acknowledgements section, which constitute an extension of this copyright page.

  First published 2012 by

  Bloodaxe Books Ltd,

  Highgreen,

  Tarset,

  Northumberland NE48 1RP.

  www.bloodaxebooks.com

  For further information about Bloodaxe titles please visit our website or write to the above address for a catalogue.

  For Pamela and Paul, their friendship, and for everyone’s love and friendship.

  Cover design: Neil Astley & Pamela Robertson-Pearce.

  The right of Neil Astley to be identified as editor of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  ISBN: 978 1 78037 042 2 ebook

 

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