From Strugnell’s Rubáiyát

1

Awake! for Morning on the Pitch of Night

Has whistled and has put the Stars to Flight.

The incandescent football in the East

Has brought the splendour of Tulse Hill to Light.

7

Another Pint! Come, loosen up, have Fun!

Fling off your Hang-Ups and enjoy the Sun:

Time’s Spacecraft all too soon will carry you

Away – and Lo! the Countdown has begun.

11

Here with a Bag of Crisps beneath the Bough,

A Can of Beer, a Radio – and Thou

Beside me half-asleep in Brockwell Park

And Brockwell Park is Paradise enow.

12

Some Men to everlasting Bliss aspire,

Their Lives, Auditions for the heavenly Choir:

Oh, use your Credit Card and waive the Rest –

Brave Music of a distant Amplifier!

26

Oh, come with Strugnell – Argument’s no Tonic.

One thing’s certain: Life flies supersonic.

One thing’s certain, Man’s Evasion chronic:

The Flower that’s blown can never be bionic.

51

The Moving Telex writes and having writ

Moves on; nor all thy Therapy nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a line

Nor Daz nor Bold wash out a Word of it.

Strugnell’s Haiku

(i)

The cherry blossom

In my neighbour’s garden – Oh!

It looks really nice.

(ii)

The leaves have fallen

And the snow has fallen and

Soon my hair also …

(iii)

November evening:

The moon is up, rooks settle,

The pubs are open.

III

Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis

It was a dream I had last week

And some kind of record seemed vital.

I knew it wouldn’t be much of a poem

But I love the title.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Aquarius, Bananas, London Review of Books,
New Premises (Radio 3), New Statesman, Observer,
The Pen, Poetry Book Society Supplement,
Poetry Now (Radio 3), Poetry Review,
Quarto, Rollercoaster (Radio 4), Spectator,
The Times Literary Supplement, Vogue.

About the Author

Wendy Cope was born in Erith, Kent. After university she worked for fifteen years as a primary school teacher in London. Her first collection of poems, Making Cocoa for Kingsley Amis, was published in 1986. In 1987 she received a Cholmondeley Award for Poetry and in 1995 the American Academy of Arts and Letters Michael Braude Award for light verse.

By the Same Author

In the Poetry Firsts collection

Simon Armitage – Kid

Philip Larkin – The Whitsun Weddings

Alice Oswald – Dart

Don Paterson – Nil Nil

Sylvia Plath – Ariel

Copyright

First published in 1986
by Faber and Faber Ltd
Bloomsbury House
74–77 Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DA
This ebook edition first published in 2010

All rights reserved
© Wendy Cope, 1986

The right of Wendy Cope to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly