The Chair
You have to first
Sit in the temple gloom
In the mahogany chair
& despair.
The only glimmer
In the temple (being the inlaid bits of
The Mother-
Of-Pearl shells
On the tall, more than humanly tall
Chair back, for these
These too
Are the reputed “Tears of Things”
Of this world as seen
By the world.
In that other chair behind Temple curtains Sits Mother Mother Who believed For a good part of her later life You were there somewhere In the temple Writing A book About her. She could hear you In Girls? “May your life be messy, Your poems tidy.”) Mother’s life was not tidy. About mother poems were written By several poets, including herself “Non-fiction” (her own) Some very good.
