Approaching Court Green

“fantastic house,

Elizabethan, marvelous”

—Ted Hughes,

“Stubbing Wharfe,”

Birthday Letters

And so he went into a trance—

I’d seen him do it many times

Black moments of prophecy—

Guinness had a secret ingredient

“These side-valleys” he said—

“Are full of big abandoned mansions”

”Elizabethan marvelous manors—

Dirt cheap for just the asking”

“Walled terraces, old eyries—

Over crevasses of trees & water”

I had no idea what drunk Ted—

Was talking, blithering about

His eyes were elsewhere—

Staring into an ancient crystal globe

He whispered Celtic things—

About our future there in that pub

A future home waiting for us—

Even tho I saw only black nothing

I saw a rainy window looking out—

Some ancient graveyard looking in

I had to smile & I got drunk too—

The future seemed to open some