Poems

Molly Holden's last collection of poems was The Country Over (1975). She died in 1981. In July, Carcanet will publish New and Selected Poems, edited by Simon Curtis and with a memoir by Alan Holden.

Dead Fledgling

Honoured and exasperated by
the deft mud cones beneath the eaves,
we watched all early summer
the house-proud martins, thieves
of our early morning rest, sweep
the surrounding air the clock round
to feed the insistent mouths, the
darkening feathers, the incessant round.

Today the eldest fell. We'd watched
him lean far out, his head down-cocked,
a week or more, almost replying
to the children's quips, who mocked
...