This poem is taken from PN Review 55, Volume 13 Number 5, May - June 1987.

Poems

C.H. Sisson

On Reflection

I sit in an unfurnished room,
Leaning my back against the wall;
A large grey sky looks in, and I
Stare back, in case the heavens should fall.

They will not: over seventy years
They have stood up and nothing now
Will bring them down, or lift me up
Further than gravity allows.

I made the journey and came here
And had my reasons on the way.
They served their turn: each step I took
Met some occasion in its day.

The long string of occasions now,
As I look back from where they led,
Appears to be so tightly strung
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