Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WALTER OF BATTERSEA, by JAMES HARRISON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WALTER OF BATTERSEA, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: I shall commit suicide or die
Last Line: Where it starts and ends.
Alternate Author Name(s): Harrison, Jim
Subject(s): Death; England; Dead, The; English


I shall commit suicide or die
trying, Walter thought beside
the Thames -- at low tide and very
feminine.

Picture him: a cold November day,
the world through a long lens; he's
in new blue pants and races the river
for thirty-three steps.

Walter won. Hands down. Then lost
again. Better to die trying! The sky
so bleak. God blows his nose above
the Chelsea Flour Mills.

What is he at forty, Nov. 9, 1978, so far
from home: grist for his own mill; all
things have become black-and-white
without hormonal surge.

And religious. He's forgiven god
for the one hundred ladies who turned him
down and took him up. O that song --
I asked her for water and she gave
me kerosene.

No visions of Albion, no visions at all,
in fact, the still point of the present winding
about itself, graceful, unsnarled. I am
here today and gone tomorrow.

How much is he here? Not quite with
all his heart and soul. Step lightly
or the earth revolves into a berserk
spin. Fall off or dance.

And choosing dance not god, at least
for the time being. Things aren't what
they seem but what they are -- infinitely
inconsolable.

He knows it's irony that's least
valuable in this long deathwatch.
Irony scratching its tired ass. No trade-offs
with time and fortune.

It's indelicate to say things twice except
in prayer. The drunk repeats to keep
his grasp, a sort of prayer: the hysteria
of the mad, a verbless prayer.

Walter recrossed the bridge which was
only a bridge. He heard his footsteps
just barely behind him. The river is not
where it starts and ends.





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