Absent Creation by Derek Stanley Savage

I wait for wonder, or the weather’s turn
To teach my tongue to wind its tangled skein
Of loss or love, lilt out its awkward words,
Or learn a rhythm from the weaving rain.

I await that ease and excellence of mind
That intimates suave movement to the hand,
Letting the typewriter shuttle off its lines
To a slow march, or stately saraband.

But time and tide-turn, running past the ear,
Seethe with distraction on a wasting sound,
The hour-sands plunge, my fingers plough through care,
I hear an endless clock thud underground.

Upon this desert coast, this sea examinate,
Lord, burst a cyclone, or a soothing rain,
Detonate dams, flood cities, souse or intoxicate,
That I may live, and feel, and speak again!

From: Rexroth, Kenneth (ed.), The New British Poets: An Anthology, 1947, New Directions: London, p. 212.
(http://www.archive.org/stream/newbritishpoets030038mbp#page/n259/mode/2up)

Date: 1947

By: Derek Stanley Savage (1917-2007)

Tags: 1947, absent creation, derek stanley savage, i wait for wonder or the weather's turn, poetry