Sunday 11 March 2012

Half C


Ray Carver said it would spell trouble
when a writer ‘found himself
reaching for his thesaurus and
then Websters in that order’
and tonight when I went to Roget’s
looking for ideas on being fifty years old
I thought naturally of it meaning half of a tough
century - or the compromise of fifty-fifty
and the meek neutrality that implies,
so I’m really in Carver’s trouble
with two halves of an idea, but maybe it’s
yin yang and when a man gets this far
he knows how to carry both parts
with some kind of dignity.

3 comments:

  1. Grand stuff, as always. I will remember this poem in six and a half years' time and remind myself that meek neutrality is not an option! I like the idea of the 'dignity to carry both parts' and hope I can achieve that-with a large dollop of outrageousness thrown in, naturally!

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