ALAN SILLITOE (POEMS)

Alan SILLITOE  (1928–2010)  was an English novelist, children's book writer, playwright and social critic, compared to D.H.Lawrence, who also came from Nottingham.

 

He introduced in the post-World War II British fiction realistically portrayed working-class heroes.

 

Best known for his novels, Sillitoe also published poetry, plays, and an autobiography, LIFE WITHOUT ARMOUR (1995).   

 

For more on Alan Sillitoe,  click HERE

alansillitoe

OUT OF MY THOUSAND VOICES

Out of my thousand voices

I speak with one

To the waves and flying saltfoam,

Flinging the dovetailed words

Of a single voice

At the knife-edged prow

Of the ship unbreakable

That carries her away.

 

I throw the one remaining voice

Of all my thousand out to sea

And watch it curving

Into the black-paunched water

Like a falling star,

A single word of love

That drops into the grave,

A thousand echoes falling from her ship.

WORK

Coming down first thing I see

The house in a lake of frost and mist,

Bare trees as in a battlefield

From which bodies have been moved.

 

By afternoon Life’s all we’ve got,

No more over the horizon

Mottled flame on a sure bed of coal

Burns out in the parlour grate,

Me at the desk creating lives :

No strength to break my own.

SMALL AD

Fanatical non-smoking teetotal fruitarian,

Bearded, early fifties,

Good walker, plays chess –

But finding life dull,

Wants to meet big bosomed

Class-conscious

Fox-hunting

Country-type carnivore female

With view to conversation

Or conversion.