Beautiful Habit
By Tom Raworth
(for Ed and Jenny)
greetings
as the door opened
ticking
please listen to this
food alone for all
the f.b.i. will continue
maybe you dozed off
i hung by that phone all night
suppose he talks
*
vida
later
aria
*
once upon a time
not looking for any thing
*
you’re on
your own
it’s off
it’s on
*
perhaps it means
ragged like that
golda my-yeer
pre-meer
*
and pour the old box
down a drain
*
too much news
said the news
*
r e o l e
*
it’s us
or rust
listener
*
deep
personal
regret
looking
up
monday
*
we can save
your head or your body
we can shave
*
even
his admission
is
a subtle lie
*
in suspense
what is cut into
the smallest of the
*
grinding
to fill
a prescription
*
drum to the wobble and a roll on the sea
come to mind an article of light
distance through distance unfinished
*
piano
*
willing to believe
*
national
anthem
hearer
*
perfect rhyme to some
all cars
kept in doors
*
sophisticated
newsmen
show how
it could have been
*
retreat
from the swiss
legation
*
numbers
for an event
*
corruption
why not?
*
infinite
detail
is no more real
*
thought
against
power
*
answer
it
*
hooked
to just another
piece of tape
hooked
to just one more
little piece of tape
*
through words in to
no
record
*
writer
righter
riter
*
am:
i
on replay?
*
all you
do is
expand
the system
*
a polaroid
of la
with the wrong
voice print
*
astronaut
amazed
at what
was expected
Copyright Credit: Tom Raworth, "Beautiful Habit" from Collected Poems. Copyright © 2003 by Tom Raworth. Reprinted by permission of Carcanet Press, Ltd.
Source: Collected Poems (Carcanet Press Ltd, 2003)