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Click hereIf hands could free you, heart,
Where would you fly?
Far, beyond every part
Of earth this running sky
Makes desolate? Would you cross
City and hill and sea,
If hands could set you free?
~ Philip Larkin, If Hands Could Free You, Heart
If hands could free you, heart,
from drumless rhythms, oceans
or fragmented falls of rain,
all different, distant yet the same
beating from miles apart.
The continent can not divide
the whisper of you, heart:
the tap of truth spoken
one letter at a time.
If hands could free you
with the feathered power
of a rhyme, where would you fly?
What music would you paint
if song could fill your eye,
recall the scattered tears
far beyond every part
of prescience, child years
that catch each flake of hope
upon the tip of smiles.
Our compasses of earth,
this running sky, make desolate
the hourglass of past.
Where would you cross
the hidden line from first
to last: heaven and earth,
city and hill and sea?
Where would you plant your dreams
if hands could set you free?
~for Tristesse
This poem was selected from Lit's archive of over 39,500 poems for inclusion in today's Archival Review.<br>
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You might consider placing "of a rhyme" on the same line as "feathered power". The poem seems to read slightly more fluidly that way.
Very nice, ange. I believe I read this in her birthday thread or at least half of it. You did a wonderful job!
A wonderfully well crafted poem. It has an excellent rythmn and just flows right off the tongue! Great images in the poem and the whole thing just made me want to read it again and again. Addictive stuff!