An Ear to the Ground

An Ear to the Ground

Bruce, Charles (1906 - 1971)

1An ear to the ground – and wait –

2You hear the chuckle and slap

3Of chop in the surly strait

4A thousand miles by the map?

5Oh no; it is only a fault

6Engrained in the rock of the mind;

7Remembered grace to the halt,

8Remembered sight to the blind.

9Whatever the world becomes,

10They will not leave you alone –

11The old impersonal drums

12Of leisurely surf on stone.

13An echo, following still;

14A silence, gathered and drowned

15In tides of a restless will

16To live again with the sound.

17It’s comfort in your virtue

18And penance for your sins,

19Till somewhere east of Cornwall

20The smell of salts begins.

RPO poem Editors

Jim Johnstone

RPO Edition

2015

Special Copyright

Poem used with permission of the Charles Bruce Estate.