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The Friday Poem on 25/03/22

We chose ‘Song’ by Martin Edwards to be this week’s Friday Poem mostly for its lovely command of tone. Honest, reflective, restrained, it walks a delicately judged line between resignation and acceptance. The language is simple but weighty. It manages to convey a certain nostalgia for the optimism of youth, a recognition of the realism that comes with age, and ultimately an understanding of our place in the greater picture.

Song

As you walk it becomes clear
that the far mountains 
will never get 
any nearer.

Although you started out early,
walking briskly and singing
songs about the lands 
beyond the mountains.

*

Through the long grasses and the cypress trees 
the song continues.

Everyone has stopped 
singing and is still.

Martin Edwards was a radio star at 23 reading poetry to millions on Radio 1 Drivetime Newsbeat. Subsequently he had done a lot of teaching, writing and reading to smaller audiences. Lately finished with the teaching.

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