Poetry that fills the ages

 

“If I were to die thinking that I'd written three poems that people might read after me, I would feel that I hadn't lived in vain. Great poets might expect the whole body of their work, but most of us - well, I would settle for a handful.” – Andrew Motion

 

Born in England in late October of 1952, Motion was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2009 and has been a champion for poetry readings and supporting poets in the reading of their own work.  

 

He also is the author of several acclaimed biographies including The Lamberts: George, Constant and Kit, which won a Somerset Maugham Award; and Keats: A Biography.   “Keats writes better about poems than anybody I've ever read,” Motion said.  “The things that he says about what he wants his own poems to be are the ideals that I share.”  For Saturday’s Poem, here is Motion’s,

 

                                                    Diving

The moment I tire
of difficult sand-grains
and giddy pebbles,
I roll with the punch
of a shriveling wave
and am cosmonaut
out past the fringe
of a basalt ledge
in a moony sea-hall
spun beyond blue.
Faint but definite
heat of the universe

 

flutters my skin;
quick fish apply
as something to love,
what with their heads
of gong-dented gold;
plankton I push

 

an easy way through
would be dust or dew
in the world behind
if that mattered at all,
which is no longer true,
with its faces and cries.