GEORGE Bruce’s athlete is not pounding a stadium in Rio but a dirt track on solitary turf in the north-east of Scotland, describing his physical and psychological responses as he goes. The lines can be found in Today Tomorrow, the fine compendium of Bruce’s Collected Poems 1933-2000 (Polygon, £14.99).
THE RUNNER
This race I run alone.
Hands dangling, limbs loose, waiting
the moment of entry eye catches eye
of daisy left of dirt track on a green plain.
I run. I lift the green grass into myself.
Breathing lengthens and pulls with
calf muscles, thigh muscles. Change
stride: go lope for distance. Strain.
The drummer heart demurs. Slacken.
I find self in the iris of the daisy,
contained by white petals in the calyx vest.
Now it carries mind. What was
ground rooted now a yellow sun
to be held, to hold mind’s eye.
Wings beat in the brain. I stay,
take earth into sky. Into the
meadows of my poverty the sun
steps. I am earth and light.
Clouds move under my feet.
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