RAISE A GLASS TO ...

... former Poet Laureate, Sir Andrew Motion, born 26 October 1952.

 A Glass of Wine - Andrew Motion

Exactly as the setting sun
clips the heel of the garden,

 

exactly as a pigeon 

roosting tries to sing
and ends up moaning,

 

exactly as the ping
of someone’s automatic carlock
dies into a flock
of tiny echo-aftershocks,

 

a shapely hand of cloud
emerges from the crowd
of airy nothings that the wind allowed
to tumble over us all day
and points the way

 

towards its own decay
but not before
a final sunlight-shudder pours
away across our garden-floor

 

so steadily, so slow
it shows you everything you need to know
about this glass I’m holding out to you,

 

its open eye
enough to bear the whole weight of the sky.

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