{"id":3222,"date":"2013-11-24T14:01:26","date_gmt":"2013-11-24T14:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3222"},"modified":"2013-12-15T21:35:00","modified_gmt":"2013-12-15T21:35:00","slug":"sean-obrien-3-poems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3222","title":{"rendered":"Three Poems"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Jardin des Plantes<\/b><\/p>\n

 
\nThe ruined summer\u2019s lush despondency,
\nArrested, Tennysonian\u2026Late afternoon
\nGrows fog from all-day rain.
\nDid we have prospects, once?
\nWe are the characters we\u2019ve read about,
\nProvincial and enraged
\nAt waking up to find we\u2019re dead.
\nIn the insanitary capitals
\nGrim functionaries glare
\nAcross the sodden parks
\nAs the invasion is delayed, but here
\nThe bosom of the garden goddess runs
\nWith freezing sweat, beneath the pale-pink
\nBlossom\u2019s rush to spend itself
\nOn all this drowning air.<\/p>\n

 
\nYou\u2019d give her one, you say. I doubt it.
\nWe sit out on the sodden benches,
\nStunned and half-asleep, like travellers
\nAbandoned by the railways
\nTo a doomed domestic pastoral
\nWhose story lies elsewhere.
\nWe are the disease that has no cure
\nOr visible employment. You, sir,
\nCall this contemplation:
\nI call you a wanker.
\nIf this place had a yard-arm,
\nThe extinguished sun
\nWould hang itself. More rain.
\nThe vindicated frogs carouse
\nAnd fuck. What time is it?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Spilt Milk<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I did not go to Hell when I was bought,
\nBut like the planet merely kept on turning.
\n 
\nThe business proved far simpler than I\u2019d thought –
\nI was na\u00efve. I\u2019m learning.
\n 
\nYou stare as though in shock, old friend.
\nIf only it were up to me
\n 
\nWe\u2019d shake and you would understand
\nThis virtuous necessity.
\n 
\nWith all the factors in the case,
\nTo keep my promise would have done no good:
\n 
\nI tell you this, and look you in the face,
\nAnd my betrayal turns to victimhood.
\n <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Edgelands 101<\/b><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/i>
\nFor Paul Farley and Michael Symmons Roberts<\/i><\/p>\n

 
\nSo there are those who simply cannot stand
\nOur claim to the deracinated land,
\n 
\nWho do not like what Polyolbion\u2019s lovers
\nSee in poisoned weeds near manhole covers.
\n 
\nFor them Works Vehicles Only<\/i>, brickfields, scrub, that call
\nTo us like life itself, mean sweet fuck-all,
\n 
\nAnd yet the wankers feel they must possess
\nAnd pacify the back-street wilderness.
\n 
\nMight we suspect that actually it\u2019s class
\nThat wants to claim the sump-oil and smashed glass
\n 
\nFor makey-uppy not-quite politics
\nThat spends its weekend mooching round the sticks
\n 
\nTo find a mirror for its impotence
\nIn crimson ponds where scruffs like us see sense?
\n 
\nTheir Otherness, their ampersands and pseudo-Pollocks:
\nJust more overweening bourgeois bollocks.
\n\u00a0<\/i>
\nWhat are you<\/i>? One more bunch of nihilists.
\nMuch better stop indoors and slit your wrists –
\n 
\nOr if not, stick to the M25,
\nAnd travel hopelessly, and don\u2019t arrive.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jardin des Plantes   The ruined summer\u2019s lush despondency, Arrested, Tennysonian\u2026Late afternoon Grows fog from all-day rain. Did we have prospects, once? We are the characters we\u2019ve read about, Provincial and enraged At waking up to find we\u2019re dead. In the insanitary capitals Grim functionaries glare Across the sodden parks As the invasion is delayed, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[298,299],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nThree Poems - The Manchester Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3222\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3222&page=2\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Three Poems - The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jardin des Plantes   The ruined summer\u2019s lush despondency, Arrested, Tennysonian\u2026Late afternoon Grows fog from all-day rain. Did we have prospects, once? We are the characters we\u2019ve read about, Provincial and enraged At waking up to find we\u2019re dead. In the insanitary capitals Grim functionaries glare Across the sodden parks As the invasion is delayed, […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3222\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Manchester Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-11-24T14:01:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-12-15T21:35:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Se\u00e1n O'Brien\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Se\u00e1n O'Brien\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3222\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3222\",\"name\":\"Three Poems - The Manchester Review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-11-24T14:01:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-12-15T21:35:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/d5484f3d2108ac7debe93b83be927ec7\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3222\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/\",\"name\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"description\":\"The Manchester Review\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/d5484f3d2108ac7debe93b83be927ec7\",\"name\":\"Se\u00e1n O'Brien\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif\",\"caption\":\"Se\u00e1n O'Brien\"},\"description\":\"Sean O\u2019Brien is Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the 2007 recipient of the Northern Rock Foundation Writer\u2019s award. His books include the essays on contemporary poetry The Deregulated Muse and the anthology The Firebox: Poetry in Britain and Ireland after 1945 (both 1998), and his 2006 new verse version of Dante\u2019s Inferno. His Collected Poems was published this year. His six individual poetry collections have all won awards, most recently The Drowned Book; which won the 2007 Forward and T.S. Eliot Prizes.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?author=79\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Three Poems - The Manchester Review","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3222","next":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3222&page=2","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Three Poems - The Manchester Review","og_description":"Jardin des Plantes   The ruined summer\u2019s lush despondency, Arrested, Tennysonian\u2026Late afternoon Grows fog from all-day rain. Did we have prospects, once? We are the characters we\u2019ve read about, Provincial and enraged At waking up to find we\u2019re dead. In the insanitary capitals Grim functionaries glare Across the sodden parks As the invasion is delayed, […]","og_url":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3222","og_site_name":"The Manchester Review","article_published_time":"2013-11-24T14:01:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-12-15T21:35:00+00:00","author":"Se\u00e1n O'Brien","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Se\u00e1n O'Brien","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3222","url":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3222","name":"Three Poems - The Manchester Review","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-11-24T14:01:26+00:00","dateModified":"2013-12-15T21:35:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/d5484f3d2108ac7debe93b83be927ec7"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?p=3222"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#website","url":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/","name":"The Manchester Review","description":"The Manchester Review","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/d5484f3d2108ac7debe93b83be927ec7","name":"Se\u00e1n O'Brien","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"http:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/wp-includes\/images\/blank.gif","caption":"Se\u00e1n O'Brien"},"description":"Sean O\u2019Brien is Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the 2007 recipient of the Northern Rock Foundation Writer\u2019s award. His books include the essays on contemporary poetry The Deregulated Muse and the anthology The Firebox: Poetry in Britain and Ireland after 1945 (both 1998), and his 2006 new verse version of Dante\u2019s Inferno. His Collected Poems was published this year. His six individual poetry collections have all won awards, most recently The Drowned Book; which won the 2007 Forward and T.S. Eliot Prizes.","url":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/?author=79"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2PuXo-PY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3222"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3585,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3222\/revisions\/3585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themanchesterreview.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}