This poem is taken from Poetry Nation 1 Number 1, 1973.

Three Poems

Val Warner
Three Poems


VIRGINIA WOOLF: IMPRESSIONS

I.

'Some kind of whole made of shivering
Fragments' early years of marriage rich stained
Glass of mad affection
Showery downs, shot down
Every mother's son in a rain of glass.

The Times: 'the dangerous times would come at the end of
Her novels' trade or the privileged existence
Of incomplete mental conquests. 'The threat
Of being sucked back into the actual world'
Of London willowherb and paper tigers.

Strong hands tide of trays
Without a coconut-shy or a role
Of agoraphobic housewife. Prattling birds
Reducing to an extended meal.
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