the river road

[Abitrary]

Saw this 'poem on the underground' on the tube a while back, and whilst most of those are stupid, this one is quite good and in the words of kylie minogue 'i just can't get it out of my head'.

The River Road - Sean O'Brien
-----------------------------
Come for a walk down the river road,
For though you're all a long time dead
The waters part to let us pass
The way we'd go on summer nights
In the times we were children
And thought we were lovers.

The river road led to the end of it all -
Stones and pale water, the lightship's bell
And distance we never looked into.
A long time gone
And the river road with it.
No margin to keep us in mind.

For afterlife, only beginning, beginning,
Wide, dark waters that grow in the telling,
Where the river road carries us now.

 

[longers]

I like that. A journey.

 

[Abitrary]

I like that. A journey.

Yes, but an uncertain journey, where the water gets muddied.

What's a lightship?

 

[longers]

It's a floating lighthouse I think.

I did feel cast adrift at the end.

 

[Abitrary]

When he said 'beginning, beginning', did he say it in a brian blessed or a kenneth williams type voice?

 

[longers]

Neither, it was Pete Postlethwaite.

 

[Abitrary]

y... what? No northerners in this poem if you will.

That phrase was breathed in a kenneth brannagh style.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

He was one of the tutor's on a poetry masterclass I did once (we have a fantastic lot of poets in our English dept here). He's quite a gruff bloke until you get to know him a bit more. He has a bit of a thing about water - his last collection, The Drowned Book, was all based around it, but I think this one comes from Downriver...

 

[Abitrary]

He was one of the tutor's on a poetry masterclass I did once..

Oh, purleeeeese give it a break. Did you have a jetpack on as well?

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Oh, purleeeeese give it a break. Did you have a jetpack on as well?

What's so unbelievable about it? We have great creative writing tutors here and lots of people take the classes. He also has an office in the room next to where I taught a course, so I used to run into him occasionally.

However, he clearly didn't teach me the use of the apostrophe!

 

[Abitrary]

However, he clearly didn't teach me the use of the apostrophe!

Yes, I did notice that, which makes me only a tad less neurotic than you.

Anyway, do you actually like the poem? I think it's quite cleansing, like a very slow sneeze.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Yes, I do like it quite a lot. It keeps threatening to have some formality, some structure, and then it all disappears in the current. He's clever like that!

 

[Abitrary]

Yes, I do like it quite a lot. It keeps threatening to have some formality, some structure, and then it all disappears in the current. He's clever like that!

Exactly. Obvious yet oblique. I think it's brilliant.

 

[Abitrary]

For me, the bell ringing is the pivotal point in the poem, and then the sound of the bell leads into infinite vision.

"the lightship's bell
And distance we never looked into"

 

[longers]

A photo of an old lightship on Flickr.

Hope this helps.