Table of Contents
11
Introduction Patrick McGuinness 13
Acknowledgements 31
An Ormond Chronology 33
I
Poem in February 47
Three Sonnets from a Cycle 48
Direction 50
Procession 51
I, at the Channel 52
Bright Candle, my Soul 53
The Symbols 55
Poem at the Beginning of Winter, 1942 56
Towards the End of a Winter 60
We Have No Name 61
Before the Peace to Be 62
Second Epithalamion: Madonna and Child 63
Before the Saps Descended 65
Elegaic Nocturne 66
Strange Within the Dividing 67
Funeral of a German Airman 68
Birthday Poem 69
Selections from An Elegy for Alun Lewis 74
Let Us Break Down the Barriers… 76
First Sleep 77
Portrait of his Grandfather 78
Portrait of his Mother 79
Portrait of his Father 80
The Unseen Blind 81
For the Children, Bronwen and Neil 83
The Angels in the Air 84
Expectation 85
Ikon 87
Windsor Forest Fall 88
Doubts of Mary, Madonna 90
Sonnet for his Daughter 94
Midwinternight 95
Homage to a Folk-Singer 97
For his Son, Unborn 100
My Dusty Kinsfolk 102
At his Father's Grave 103
City in Fire and Snow 104
II Saturday Pictures
Daffodil in Snow 121
Gulls 122
Sow under an Oak 123
Lovers in a Landscape 124
Mirror 125
A Chimp Gazes at his Hand 126
Sonnet for Satchmo 127
Cuckoo in the Nest 128
Father nursing Boy 129
Doe and Suckling Fawn 130
III
Cathedral Builders 133
Design for a Tomb 134
Instructions to Settlers 136
Message in a Bottle 137
First Sleep II 139
Poem in February II 140
Finding a Fossil 141
Three Rs 142
Tombstones 143
Epitaph for Uncle Johnnie 144
After a Death 145
My Grandfather and his Apple Tree 146
January Journey 148
The Ambush 152
Michelangelo to Himself, 1550 153
After Petrarch 154
To a Nun 155
The Hall of Cynddylan 156
Landscape without Figures 158
Froga 159
Johnny Randall 160
Postcard from the Past 162
Definition of a Waterfall 163
Elegy for a Butterfly 164
Salmon 165
Organist 168
The Key 170
IV
Ancient Monuments 175
Paraphrase for Edwin Arlington Robinson 178
In September 180
Lazarus 181
Fireweed 183
Winter Rite 184
Saying 185
Under a Balcony 186
Where Home Was 187
Summer Mist 189
Full-Length Portrait of a Short Man 190
Tricephalos 192
Lament for a Leg 194
The Piano Tuner 196
Nearly Jilted 197
Section from a Elegy (for Dylan Thomas) 198
Boundaries 200
Certain Questions for Monsieur Renoir 202
The Birth of Venus at Aberystwyth 204
Letter to a Geologist 206
Notes to a Suicide 208
Design for a Quilt 210
A Lost Word 212
Captive Unicorn 214
Night in a Hundred 215
An Ending 216
Note Found on a Mantelpiece 218
Homing Pigeons 219
Patagonian Portrait 220
Landscape in Dyfed 222
Tune for a Celestial Musician 223
The Gift 224
Where Else? 225
As it Happens 226
Year In, Year Out 227
V
Among Friends 231
Cat's Cradles 232
There There, Then 234
Certain Episodes Reported with No Offence Meant to God
1 Sunday Morning Lie-in 236
2 Poste Restante; Counter Closed 237
3 Entropy Revisited 237
4 QuoVadis? 238
5 Song of Anti-Matter 238
6 Ode to Winston Place 239
Of Exits 240
Castiglion Fiorentino 243
Elsewhere 244
For Glenys 245
Right Time 246
Note from Cortona 248
Storm 249
Evening in the Square 250
Waiting in the Garden 251
Illuminations of the Letter O 253
Turning 255
Soliloquy of a Secret Policeman 256
Tuscan Cypresses 258
Saint Teresa's Drum 263
Blue Bath-gown 264
Family Matters 265
Notes to the poems 266
Television Films John Ormond 302
Bibliography 304
Index of Titles 308
Index of First Lines 312
Acknowledgements 316
