read by

Roy Fisher


Why They Stopped Singing
『Poems: 1955-1987 』

They stopped singing because
They remembered why they had started

Stopped because
They were singing too well

When they stopped they hoped for
A silence to listen into.

Had they sung longer
The people would not have known what to say.

They stopped from the fear
Of singing for ever

They stopped because they saw the rigid world
Become troubled

Saw it begin
Composing a question.

Then they stopped singing
While there was time