Higher English - Poem Quotes

Snapping a twig

Mrs Midas

Like a lightbulb. On

Mrs Midas

Like a king on a burnished throne

Mrs Midas

The toilet, I didn't mind

Mrs Midas

He was spitting out teeth of the rich

Mrs Midas

Separate beds

Mrs Midas

We all have wishes granted. But who has wishes granted?

Mrs Midas

He picked up the glass, goblet, golden chalice, drank

Mrs Midas

He sat in the back

Mrs Midas

Who, when it comes to the crunch, can live with a heart of gold?

Mrs Midas

Halcyon days

Mrs Midas

Unwrapping each other rapidly, like presents

Mrs Midas

He was thin, delirious; hearing, he said, the music of Pan

Mrs Midas

Lack of thought for me

Mrs Midas

I miss most... his touch

Mrs Midas

Pure selfishness

Mrs Midas

We came from out own country in a red room

Originally

Fell through the fields

Originally

My brother cried, one of them bawling home, home

Originally

The miles rushed back to the city

Originally

I stared at the eyes of a blind toy, holding it’s paw for comfort

Originally

Some are sudden

Originally

All childhood is an emigration

Originally

Some are slow, leaving you standing, resigned, up an avenue where no one you know stays

Originally

Your accent wrong

Originally

Skelf of shame

Originally

I want our own country

Originally

Shedding its skin like a snake

Originally

My parents anxiety stirred like a loose tooth

Originally

I hesitate.

Originally

Eating worms

Originally

Swallow a slug

Originally

I say her phrases to myself

The Way My Mother Speaks

The day and ever. The day and ever.

The Way My Mother Speaks

Browsing for the right sky

The Way My Mother Speaks

Too blue swapped for a cool gray

The Way My Mother Speaks

Under the shallows of my breath

The Way My Mother Speaks

Restful shapes moving

The Way My Mother Speaks

What like is it

The Way My Mother Speaks

Nothing is silent. Nothing is not silent.

The Way My Mother Speaks

Dipped a net

The Way My Mother Speaks

Green erotic pond

The Way My Mother Speaks

I am homesick, free, in love with the way my mother speaks

The Way My Mother Speaks

Like a child

The Way My Mother Speaks

You could travel up the Blue Nile with your finger

In Mrs Tilschers Class

Laugh of a bell

In Mrs Tilschers Class

A skittle of milk

In Mrs Tilschers Class

Better than home

In Mrs Tilschers Class

Enthralling books

In Mrs Tilschers Class

She'd left a gold star by your name

In Mrs Tilschers Class

Mrs Tilscher loved you

In Mrs Tilschers Class

Rough boy

In Mrs Tilschers Class

Sugar paper. Coloured Shapes. Brady and Hindley faded, like a faint uneasy smudge of a mistake

In Mrs Tilschers Class

Inky tadpoles changed from commas into exclamation marks

In Mrs Tilschers Class

Under the heavy sexy sky

In Mrs Tilschers Class

Tangible alarm made you always untidy, hot

In Mrs Tilschers Class

You ran through the gates, impatient to be grown

In Mrs Tilschers Class

The sky split open into a thunderstorm

In Mrs Tilschers Class

A xylophone's nonsense

In Mrs Tilschers Class

In his darkroom he is finally alone

War Photographer

Set out in ordered rows

War Photographer

He has a job to do

War Photographer

Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh.

War Photographer

Solutions slop in trays

War Photographer

As though this were a church and he a priest

War Photographer

All flesh is grass

War Photographer

Which did not tremble then

War Photographer

Ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel

War Photographer

To fields which don't explode beneath the feet of running children

War Photographer

In a nightmare heat

War Photographer

A hundred agonies in black and white

War Photographer

Half formed ghost

War Photographer

Something is happening

War Photographer

They do not care.

War Photographer

Pick out five or six

War Photographer

Rural England

War Photographer

Not a red rose or a satin heart

Valentine

I give you an onion

Valentine

Like the careful undressing of love

Valentine

Here.

Valentine

It is a moon wrapped in brown paper

Valentine

It will blind you with tears like a lover.

Valentine

Not a cute card or a kissogram

Valentine

I am trying to be truthful

Valentine

A wobbling photo of grief

Valentine

Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips

Valentine

Possessive and faithful

Valentine

As we are, for as long as we are

Valentine

Take it.

Valentine

Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding ring

Valentine

If you like.

Valentine

Lethal.

Valentine

Its scent will cling to your finger, cling to your knife.

Valentine