Poem
John Burnside
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHILDHOOD 1: HOUSE
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHILDHOOD 1: HOUSE
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHILDHOOD 1: HOUSE
If the house in a dreamIs how I imagine myself:
room after room
of furniture no one could use;
stairs leading upwards
to nothing; an empty hall
filling with snow
where a door has been left ajar;
then whatever I make
of the one room high in the roof
where something alive and frantic
is hopelessly trapped,
whatever I make
of the sweetness it leaves behind
on waking, what I know
and cannot tell
is awkward and dark in my hands
while I stop to remember
the snare of a heart;
the approximate weight of possession.
© 2002, John Burnside
From: London Review of Books
From: London Review of Books
John Burnside
(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1955)
John Burnside was born in Dunfermline, Fife, between the firths of Forth and Tay, in 1955. He lived in the English home counties and Gloucestershire before returning to Fife a few years ago. He studied English and European languages in Cambridge, and after working as a computer engineer became a fulltime writer; he also teaches at St Andrew’s University. He has won and been short-listed for sev...
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Poems of John Burnside
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THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHILDHOOD 1: HOUSE
If the house in a dreamIs how I imagine myself:
room after room
of furniture no one could use;
stairs leading upwards
to nothing; an empty hall
filling with snow
where a door has been left ajar;
then whatever I make
of the one room high in the roof
where something alive and frantic
is hopelessly trapped,
whatever I make
of the sweetness it leaves behind
on waking, what I know
and cannot tell
is awkward and dark in my hands
while I stop to remember
the snare of a heart;
the approximate weight of possession.
From: London Review of Books
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHILDHOOD 1: HOUSE
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