Poem
Dannie Abse
Pathology of Colours
Pathology of Colours
Pathology of Colours
I know the colour rose, and it is lovely,but not when it ripens in a tumour;
and healing greens, leaves and grass, so springlike,
in limbs that fester are not springlike.
I have seen red-blue tinged with hirsute mauve
in the plum-skin face of a suicide.
I have seen white, china white almost, stare
from behaind the smashed windscreen of a car.
And the criminal, multi-coloured flash
of an H-bomb is no more beautiful
than an autopsy when the belly's opened -
to show cathedral windows never opened.
So in the simple blessing of a rainbow,
in the bevelled edge of a sunlit mirror,
I have seen, visible, Death's artifact
like a soldier's ribbon on a tunic tacked.
From: Ask the Moon: New and Collected Poems 1948 – 2014
Publisher: Hutchinson,
Read by the poet at Poetry International Festival Rotterdam, 1983
Publisher: Hutchinson,
Dannie Abse
(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1923 - 2014)
Dannie Abse was an esteemed poet, author, playwright and former doctor. He was a hugely popular figure in British poetry, a former President of the Poetry Society (1978-1992) and a powerful reader who displayed great humour and lightness of touch. He remained a vigorous poet up until his death in 2014, with new poems published in recent issues of The Poetry Review.
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Pathology of Colours
I know the colour rose, and it is lovely,but not when it ripens in a tumour;
and healing greens, leaves and grass, so springlike,
in limbs that fester are not springlike.
I have seen red-blue tinged with hirsute mauve
in the plum-skin face of a suicide.
I have seen white, china white almost, stare
from behaind the smashed windscreen of a car.
And the criminal, multi-coloured flash
of an H-bomb is no more beautiful
than an autopsy when the belly's opened -
to show cathedral windows never opened.
So in the simple blessing of a rainbow,
in the bevelled edge of a sunlit mirror,
I have seen, visible, Death's artifact
like a soldier's ribbon on a tunic tacked.
From: Ask the Moon: New and Collected Poems 1948 – 2014
Read by the poet at Poetry International Festival Rotterdam, 1983
Pathology of Colours
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