Home > Poetry Magazine > The Dead

Poetry Magazine

POEM
RELATED CONTENT Discover this poem's context and related poetry.

The Dead

By Don Paterson b. 1963 Don Paterson

Our business is with fruit and leaf and bloom;

though they speak with more than just the season's tongue—

the colours that they blaze from the dark loam

all have something of the jealous tang

of the dead about them. What do we know of their part

in this, those secret brothers of the harrow,

invigorators of the soil—oiling the dirt

so liberally with their essence, their black marrow?

But here's the question. Are the flower and fruit

held out to us in love, or merely thrust

up at us, their masters, like a fist?

Or are they the lords, asleep amongst the roots,

granting to us in their great largesse

this hybrid thing—part brute force, part mute kiss?

Source: Poetry (June 2004).

Biography

Originally from Dundee, Scotland, Don Paterson left school at 16 and moved to London to pursue music and join a band. He found success with the jazz-folk ensemble Lammas, but was captivated by poetry upon encountering poet Tony Harrison. A self-taught poet influenced by Coleridge, Paul Muldoon, Derek Mahon, and Michael Longley, Paterson devoted a year to reading before he began to write and publish in earnest.

Paterson’s first . . .

Continue reading this biography