nas,

I, too, don't see this poet becoming one I 'll read and purchase. I thought it was newsworthy and he does have a following. I enjoyed the poem but it didn't register up there with my favorites.

Norm

Hi Norm

To be honest, this poem didn't move me like "Nick and the Candlestick" or "The Road not Taken"

It doesn't tempt me to want to read more by him.

James Fenton was in the news this weekend regarding his newest book, "Selected Poems". His most famous poem is probably "Wind" ... let us know your thoughts on this one.

Wind
    
This is the wind, the wind in a field of corn.
Great crowds are fleeing from a major disaster
Down the green valleys, the long swaying wadis, 
Down through the beautiful catastrophe of wind.

Families, tribes, nations, and their livestock
Have heard something, seen something. An expectation
Or a gigantic misunderstanding has swept over the hilltop
Bending the ear of the hedgerow with stories of fire and sword.

I saw a thousand years pass in two seconds.
Land was lost, languages rose and divided.
This lord went east and found safety.
His brother sought Africa and a dish of aloes.

Centuries, minutes later, one might ask
How the hilt of a sword wandered so far from the smithy.
And somewhere they will sing: 'Like chaff we were borne
In the wind. ' This is the wind in a field of corn. 

James Fenton