R.F. Langley's Collected Poems (Carcanet, 2000), first selection

Some favourite passages:



...soothed
passage of the cars, slight
pressure of the sparrow's
chirps--just what the old glass
gently tested, bending,
she would have meant, and not
a dream ascending. 

*

...the lie she told to throw
the truth into relief.

Into the pure relief
of ordinary light.

from "Mariana"

We leave unachieved in the 

summer dusk. There was no

need for you rather than me.

Here is the unalterable truth.

*

Now, when I need it, I'm so close

to emptiness.

*

We find

peace in the room and don't

ask what won't be answered.

from "The Upshot"

We sway up, shut

down and open, coolly, each

small hour.

*

These inroads let

me understand, and mark

sharply. Over what? Over

brilliant quietness.

*

White hedonism cut on blue

intelligence and laced

with silver anxiety. Bravo.

from "The Ecstasy Inventories"

It is a common experience to come upon a

pale, glittering house set far back across

a meadow. It is certainly inside you.

*

The unexpected colours stare. The crowd

is wholly intent. A fluttering. A blaze.

*

The self is felt, 

as standing, fired, inside the diamond.

from "Juan Fernandez"

The drunk. Hush. Lay him down in

the sound of his name.

from "Saxon Landings"

O you, o you he

this, she this

here, once, and

again and again

fieldgate.

from "Blithing"

Unbidden thoughts come sometimes

lustrous.

from "Rough Silk"

Once more the menace of the small

hours and of coming to light and of

each sharper complication.

*

This still

increasing presence is for the last time.

Then the beginning of an immense grip.

*

Nothing I want settles

anything.

*

It's a strange 

relief to transform your fretting into

the silent coiling of a phantom dragon.

from "The Gorgoneion"

R.F. Langley's Collected Poems is available directly from the publisher at a discount.