Absences

Philip Arthur Larkin

1922 to 1985

Poem Image

Rain patters on a sea that tilts and sighs 
Fast-running floors, collapsing into hollows, 
Tower suddenly, spray-haired. Contrariwise, 
A wave drops like a wall: another follows, 
Wilting and scrambling, tirelessly at play 
Where there are no ships and no shallows.

Above the sea, the yet more shoreless day, 
Riddled by wind, trails lit-up galleries:
They shift to giant ribbing, sift away.

Such attics cleared of me! Such absences!