This poem is taken from PN Review 14, Volume 6 Number 6, July - August 1980.

'To David Wright on his Sixtieth Birthday'

George Barker

I think it just that this deaf man should be
    one of those few who have heard
the mute swansinging at the heart of the matter
    or the trumpeter born in the word.

We only notice them when they are gone, the Ovids
    who dream in their spidered caves, the Horatians
muttering in sheeted lightning. And you, David,
    second of the inspired Africans.
...
Searching, please wait...