Status Updates From Don Paterson Selected Poems

Why Do You Stay Up So Late?

The poem about rinsing beach stones in the rock pool to find out which ones are worth keeping

The Thread

Jamie made his landing in the world
so hard he ploughed straight back into the earth.
They caught him by the thread of his one breath
and pulled him up. They don’t know how it held.

A Private Bottling

So finally, let me propose a toast: not to love, or life, or real feeling, but to their sentimental residue; to your sweet memory, but not to you.

Filter

Thrown out in a glittering arc   
as clear as the winterbourne,
the jug of Murphy’s I threw back   
goes hissing off the stone.

Whatever I do with all the black   
is my business alone.