Lynette Roberts: Collected Poems
Page 18
Air white with cold. Cycloid wind prevails. (‘Cwmcelyn’) 32
Air white with cold. Cycloid wind prevails. (Gods with Stainless Ears, Part V) 64
And as the log burnt up and bright 93
And the sea will insist 17
At first God wanted just himself. 84
Because you produced the birth of sound within me 100
Concrete slabs measured overnight into 94
Convent of cold stream. 24
Embrowns himmel hokushai. Manure seeps 56
Every waiting moment is a fold of sorrow 5
Eyelashes like barley hairs, 94
Fields of camomile and clover 93
For seven days the dawn, 91
Green gregarious green 95
He alone could get me out of this 99
He whom my heart sings to 22
Heard the steam rising from the chill blue bricks, 20
Here a perfect people set – on red rock, 9
I have seen the finger of God 81
I own, 102
I spent my days in passage ways, 103
I walk and cinder bats riddle my cloak 7
I would see again São Paulo: 27
I, in my dressing gown, 10
I, rimmeled, awake before the dressing sun: 60
I’ll not wash now Mam 91
If I could create one tree 92
If you come my way that is… 3
If you have your heart in a thing 96
In elm no bird of jade 14
In her eyes, 81
In steel white land far distant near snow shivers out bead sequins glare 82
In the cold when sea-mews flake the sky 12
In the lake of pools 30
Love is an outlaw that cannot be held 86
Memory widens our senses, folds them open: 28
Out of the hot womb into the cold night breeze, 95
Peace, my stranger is a tree 83
Rain freezes our senses. 26
Seagulls’ easy glide 16
Sitting in the emerald of twilight 90
Sitting surrounded by wasps, 103
So that magnetism pierces each blight 18
Spade jackets and tapping jackdaws on boles of wood, 12
Spring which has its appeal in ghosts, 21
Stern pattern cut. 95
Stone village, who would know that I lived alone: 6
That this, so common an event 16
The ‘pele’ fetched in. Water 89
The bell tolls from umbrella woods: 31
The full field. 11
The pampas are for ever returning 30
There was a carpenter at my door, 98
Through the trees… sea, 90
To pine, moan, grieve, to hone, 99
To speak of everyday things with ease 4
To the village of lace and stone 8
To these green woods where I found my love: 87
To you who walked so proudly down the line, 29
Today the same tide leans back, blue rinsing bay, 44
Very strange is this fish and gift, 97
We must upprise O my people. Though (‘Poem’) 13
We must uprise O my people. Though (Gods with Stainless Ears, Part II) 53
When fold of iron blue and 96
When rose-hips red as braziers shine from the hedge 19
Where leaves grow out of tree trunks 102
Where poverty strikes the pavement – there is found 83
Who bends the plain to waist of night 25
With eyes like tired skies and shifting explosion 97
You want to know about my village. 4
About the Author
LYNETTE ROBERTS was born in Buenos Aires of Welsh family in 1909 and died in West Wales in 1995. She published two collections of poems in her lifetime, both from Faber and Faber: Poems (1944) and Gods with Stainless Ears (subtitled ‘A Heroic Poem’; 1951). She married the Welsh writer and editor Keidrych Rhys.
PATRICK MCGUINNESS is translator of Mallarmé’s For Anatole’s Tomb (2003) and author of a book of poems, The Canals of Mars (2004).
Copyright
First published in Great Britain in 2005
by Carcanet Press Ltd, Alliance House, 30 Cross Street, Manchester M2 7AQ
This ebook edition first published in 2012
All rights reserved
Works by Lynette Roberts copyright © Angharad and Prydein Rhys 2005
Preface copyright © Angharad Rhys 2005
Selection, introduction and editorial matter copyright © Patrick McGuinness 2005
The right of Patrick McGuinness to be identified as the 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
Epub ISBN 978–1–84777–564–1
Mobi ISBN 978–1–84777–565–8
The publisher acknowledges financial assistance from Arts Council England