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Each of us pursues a path, each ant has its very own

Destination. However, in my opinion, poetry’s been ruined by

An excess of thought: thought that sneers at action and

Reduces observation to a metaphor crawling across the page

And possibly down to its foot, but getting little further.

Heaps and heaps of poets today busily manufacture

Quasi-profound little homilies for competition prizes

x

In languid lyrics which comply with designated sizes.

So how should one deal with a vista? Not just one in fact

But a myriad views which extend even beyond the ability

To describe them. Helicopter squares below, and then

The geometry of stadia, playing fields, and over there

The stencilled letter of a port with its quays. Or flats

Looking flat, laid out in so many stacked-up Leggo blocks,

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Then the long strip of a runway. A bridge like a necklace

Strung across the strait. The city seen as a map, buttressed by

Crags, connected by tunnels, flowing along the protracted

Curves of the sea. A glittering flood of humanity! Lapping at

The feet of hills, it rises ever higher, seeking to reach the Redeemer

Whose outstretched arms protect more distant aerials,

While Magnificent Frigatebirds float higher still and share the view

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Our vantage point provides for us. Here the air’s as pure

As that of Delphi. Even if this particular high place

Hardly suggests you’ll come down with a tablet or two.

Maybe a plaited straw hat, or you can dine beneath a parasol

As the city turns to diamonds way below your prosecco

And all you need’s a white suit and a pot pourri of sambas

To entice her back to your fancy pad, there to slip like a snake

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Out of the skin of her gown. But you can leave all that till you

Get down. Evening has not fallen yet, although a reddened moon

Is now afloat close to an island breaching the horizon.

It’s amazing really. My grandmother was born in 1870.

My grandchildren might live to see the start of the 22nd  century.

And here I can look out across the background of Brazil:

Hill beyond hill beyond hill beyond hill beyond hill…

x

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From The Runiad, Book 22