Sunday, October 15, 2017

Adlestrop

—Anonymous Photo



ADLESTROP
—Edward Thomas (1878-1917)

Yes, I remember Adlestrop—

The name, because one afternoon

Of heat the express-train drew up there

Unwontedly. It was late June.

The steam hissed. Someone cleared his throat.

No one left and no one came

On the bare platform. What I saw

Was Adlestrop—only the name

And willows, willow-herb, and grass,

And meadowsweet, and haycocks dry,

No whit less still and lonely fair

Than the high cloudlets in the sky.

And for that minute a blackbird sang

Close by, and round him, mistier,

Farther and farther, all the birds

Of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

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Three poetry events in our area today: This morning, 11am, Rhony Bhopla will interview Tamer Said Mostafa at Coffee & Poets at the Brickhouse Gallery in Sacramento. At 1pm at the Central Library on I Street in Sac., historian/writer Arnold Kunst will present “The Civil War in Poetry and Music”. And in Placerville, also at 1pm, Poetry in Placerville will feature Steve Talbert and Sue Crisp at Love Birds Coffee and Tea Co. Scroll down to the blue column (under the green column at the right) for info about these and other upcoming poetry events in our area—and note that more may be added at the last minute.