Circumstances analogousto life and death, house cleaning orclutter. Dante or an old shirt.It’s there to cut, but not to chop.Between the knuckle-bones it’s softas butter. Or you picked a leafoff the road. What is it when itreaches the sea? The gulls are awhite flap over sprats in the foam.Call it an episode when theytumble together to make itone. The cliff is history. Youthrow yourself in where the fish arethickest. Take hold of a word andturn it on. Tourbillion. Ablade is so sharp it can dance roundthe joint. Silvery energiesargue the point. The carcase ofan ox flops open. Shall we leaveit at that? Some of the cliff calvesflat. The rest ducks, and runs like arat. Look about and wipe the knife.But there’s more, there’s more. Rubbing itout will prove there’s no nub of thematter. There are too many eyesfor your own eyes to catch in thescatter. Twelve blank sheets of paperhung up on a string. The joy ofperpetual bicker. Your seatat the open door. The shuttersbanged back. A dark acrobat whosomersaults through to rob a fewof the glittering company.Is there a wife for a viking?A pair of socks in a poem?Beetles and sticks in a box? Brightbait. Bright bait. You notice what hasgone into the picture. Bite it.It can’t be expected to wait.
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“Cook Ting” from COMPLETE POEMS: by R.F. Langley
Published by Carcanet Press on October 1, 2015
Copyright © 2002 R.F. Langley
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
R.F. Langley was born in Rugby, England in 1938. He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge and went on to teach English and Art History in secondary schools. He lived in Staffordshire for most of his life, but the inspiration for much of his work came from the landscapes of Suffolk. He published several pamphlets and two books: Collected Poems (2000) and The Face of It (2007). R.F. Langley died in 2011. He was posthumously awarded the 2011 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem, for “To a Nightingale”, and his Complete Poems (Carcanet) appeared in 2015.
R.F. Langley is known for his meticulous observation of the natural world and his highly original voice. This volume brings together his two previous Carcanet collections, Collected Poems (2000) and The Face of It (2007), along with his celebrated but uncollected late poems, including ‘To a Nightingale’, which won the 2011 Forward Prize for Best Individual Poem. The book includes a biographical introduction and a rare note by the poet on his own compositional practice. Langley kept a careful record of the reading and writing which inspired his poems; this edition is fully annotated with these sources, making it an invaluable guide for readers wanting to explore the visionary imagination of this master craftsman.
"[R.F. Langley} was attentive to the natural world and to the textures of the English language, and his Complete Poems is a gem of a book."
—Paul Batchelor, Times Literary Supplement
"R.F. Langley's Complete Poems (Carcanet), edited by Jeremy Noel-Tod, preserves the work of a comparatively neglected figure, who died in 2011 and whose reputation is bound to rise. It's not a long book, but every single poem is exceptionally watchful and scrupulous. A life's work, to last its readers a lifetime."
—The Guardian
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