How shall we expel a new birth? My age
Tells against me in a speech not my own
But familiar. Face raddled with rouge
Cast me as Quentin Crisp not as Timon;

A tenured special adviser to life.
Could have wished confirmation while all slept.
I would not curse to redefine belief,
Disfigure telling rhyme of the adept.

—Geoffrey Hill, from “Expostulations on the Volcano: 54”
Art Credit Henrik Samuelsson, 2008, technique mixte, 200 x 300 cm.

2:30 pm  •  22 December 2012  •  30 notes