Miles Away
by Carol Ann Duffy

I want you and you are not here. I pause in
this garden, breathing the colour thought is
before language into still air. Even your name
is a pale ghost and, though I exhale it again
and again, it will not stay with me. Tonight
I make you up, imagine you, your movements clearer
than the words I have you say you said before.

Wherever you are now, inside my head you fix me
with a look, standing here whilst cool late light
dissolves into the earth. I have got your mouth wrong,
but still it smiles. I hold you closer, miles away,
inventing love, until the calls of nightjars
interrupt and turn what was to come, was certain,into memory.
The stars are filming us for no one.



Warming Her Pearls

Next to my own skin, her pearls.
My mistress bids me wear them, warm them, until evening
when I'll brush her hair. At six, I place them
round her cool, white throat. All day I think of her,

resting in the Yellow room, contemplating silk
or taffeta, which gown tonight? She fans herself
whilst I work willingly, my slow heat entering
each pearl. Slack on my neck, her rope.

She's beautiful. I dream about her
in my attic bed; picture her dancing
with tall men, puzzled by my faint persistent scent
beneath her French perfume, her milky stones.

I dust her shoulders with a rabbit's foot,
watch the soft blush seep through her skin
like an indolent sigh. In her looking-glass
my red lips part as though I want to speak.

Full moon. Her carriage brings her home. I see
her every movement in my head ... Undressing,
taking off her jewels, her slim hand reaching
for the case, slipping naked into bed, the wayshe always does ...

And I lie here awake,
knowing the pearls are cooling even now
in the room where my mistress sleeps.
All night I feel their absence and I burn.

Carol Ann Duffy


oh my goodness! i'm hopelessly in love!! with CAROL ANN DUFFY!!!! miles away is AWESOME!! i really had a moment of epiphany when i read this english poem. warming her pearls is nice too...ok...at least it's one tt's MY cup of tea..haha..maybe not for others~~~:P...but oh manZ...these 2 are HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! 第一次深刻的体会到。。文学是不分语言的。。:)