This follows on from my previous post, although the poem was written many years ago after watching that very moving play which featured Judi Dench as Iris Murdoch.
Iris Murdoch is, or rather was, someone I admired enormously and I read her novels always looking forward to when her next would be published. The first time I read this poem in public was back in 2004 (or it might have been 2005) when I was reading alongside Jackie Kay in a Poetry Doubles event in Dumfries – where an established poet was paired with a local newcomer on the poetry scene. A great opportunity for me.
Lost Mind
You had once a fine mind
but now, no longer.
Words will not come.
You can not find
those needed in the lumber
of your cobwebbed brain.
‘It’s only the postman.’
‘It’s only the postman.’
repeated childlike as he delivers
your latest book. We see
your words from a time past,
when words flowed
and that fine mind,
was not lost
in the search,
for
a
right
word.
Life's a Beach 