A model canal boat on my mantelpiece.
The Kennet and Avon, the Forth and Clyde,
the Leeds and Liverpool canal are suddenly near.
I wish I had the requisite woodworking skills.
Girls pushing prams, picking blackberries,
going pear-shaped - exquisite as any supermodel
on a luxury yacht in skimpy bra and bikini
showing what she's got.
A little narrow boat brightly painted
cutting a swathe past ducks, swans,
and moorhens, a world without waves,
a refuge from a troubled inner-city Britain.
Just a model narrow boat for this Harry H.
Corbett bargee; the real thing, you see,
would be costly, prohibitive, could sink
or get vandalized very easily.
Early Works is an exhaustive compilation of the first decade of the poems and stories of Z.B.McClure. Included are family photos, rare personal photos, photos of 1st draft manuscripts of many of his early poems. Also some biography and memoir materia
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