andrew soye

Reading Michael Longley

To write ‘for Michael Longley’ here

Would seem presumptuous, too inept

A homemade, term-end thank-you card

From an awkward teacher’s pet

But I have seen you striding

In the rows between the desks

Measuring out time and meter

In the lines of rhyming couplets

Quoting classics to a class

Who have long ago stopped their ears

An Argonaut lashed to his own mast

Perseus straightened by the fearsome task

Of pinning down life without killing it

Slaying Medusa while staying alive

With poetry as balanced, delicate

As a bird in flight

Words like polished, shining eyes