photo of the late great poet genius W.H. Auden.

FILMIC (after WH Auden's 'Stop all the Clocks')
written by: jim bellamy

  Prune down the angels to the wick
Snuff out all candles, unbake all bread
Spoil all trenches with a slick
Ferry the living to the dead
Where blows a lover, deal
A fatal flaw to all that call
Mar all saviours with a weal
Slash the cinema seats and stalls.

  They were the shivers of the silver screen
Where their blood flows, the curtain thralls
Retire all vision to the dumb
For now no good may come of all.
Lash the usherette to the sedge
Unravel torches down the hill:

   Crash the armies through pithead
Mess the crowd till life lies still
Where crows a regime's alms,
Dash the lights and kill the spiels
Where glows a face of calm,
Gnash each drama round the keels.

   They were all we owned
Where they lie dead, there may be none..
Embalm the filmic gods with bones
For now all love is done?

*
copyright
jdbellamy
1998

*