Thursday 11 December 2008

The Thought-Fox - Ted Hughes

This seems appropriately wintry and I am busy sewing right now, so apologies - back to normal tomorrow I hope.

THE THOUGHT-FOX

I imagine this midnight moment’s forest:
Something else is alive
Beside the clock’s loneliness
And this blank page where my fingers move.

Through the window I see no star:
Something more near
Though deeper within darkness
Is entering the loneliness:

Cold, delicately as the dark snow,
A fox’s nose touches twig, leaf;
Two eyes serve a movement, that now
And again now, and now, and now

Sets neat prints into the snow
Between trees, and warily a lame
Shadow lags by stump and in hollow
Of a body that is bold to come

Across clearings, an eye,
A widening deepening greenness,
Brilliantly, concentratedly,
Coming about its own business

Till, with a sudden sharp hot stink of fox
It enters the dark hole of the head.
The window is starless still; the clock ticks,
The page is printed.

6 comments:

Willow said...

Thank you for this Bovey Belle - it brings back very fond memories of 'A' Levels. We studied Ted Hughes and this was one of my favourites - amazing how familiar the words sound, even after all these years!!
Willow x

nita x said...

what a lovely poem jennie :o)

A Bite of Country Cupcakes said...

lovely!
And that photograph with the snow encaptures it.... beautiful!

Bovey Belle said...

TWW - when I did my Access course we did the Romantic poets. Ted Hughes would have been nice to study though - I think this is a wonderfully evocative poem.

Nita and Cupcakes - I saw a fox on one of my recent walks. He was totally at ease with me being there - just looked at me, then went through the fence and walked across a field with a couple of ponies in it. Not bothered by people at all.

sweet blondie blue eyes said...

Lovely door curtain, I really wish we had room to put one on our front door, We had one in the last house and it was brilliant.

By the by the hand cream is working great thank you, no splits or sores at all. I will have to have a go at making some myself next year when the elderflowers are out along with the cordial I usually make.

Bovey Belle said...

Silversewer - I've just gone to check. If you look up 13th June in my archives, that's when I wrote up the recipe and "how to" for the Elderflower Handcream. If you can get some dried elderflowers (our local health food stocks them but you could get them on-line, I am sure) those would work just as well, and you could make some straight away.