Poem
Esther Morgan
Grace
Grace
Grace
You’ve been living for this for weekswithout knowing it:
the moment the house empties like a city in August
so completely
it forgets you exist.
Light withdraws slowly
is almost gone before you notice.
In the stillness, everything becomes itself:
the circle of white plates on the kitchen table
the serious chairs that attend them
even the roses on the papered walls
seem to open a little wider.
It looks simple: the glass vase holding
whatever is offered –
cut flowers, or the thought of them –
simple, though not easy
this waiting without hunger in the near dark
for what you may be about to receive.
© 2014, Esther Morgan
From: Grace
Publisher: Bloodaxe Books, Tarset
From: Grace
Publisher: Bloodaxe Books, Tarset
Esther Morgan
(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1970)
Esther Morgan is the author of three books of poetry, of which the third, Grace, was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize in 2011. Her poetry is subtle, quiet, delicately paced. Concerned with absences, small moments, things we barely register, her poems creep back up on the reader with lingering resonances.
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Poems of Esther Morgan
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Grace
You’ve been living for this for weekswithout knowing it:
the moment the house empties like a city in August
so completely
it forgets you exist.
Light withdraws slowly
is almost gone before you notice.
In the stillness, everything becomes itself:
the circle of white plates on the kitchen table
the serious chairs that attend them
even the roses on the papered walls
seem to open a little wider.
It looks simple: the glass vase holding
whatever is offered –
cut flowers, or the thought of them –
simple, though not easy
this waiting without hunger in the near dark
for what you may be about to receive.
From: Grace
Grace
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