‘Please send future work’

Future Work
Fleur Adcock

   
    – EDITOR'S NOTE ON A REJECTION SLIP

    It is going to be a splendid summer.
    The apple tree will be thick with golden russets
    expanding weightily in the soft air.
    I shall finish the brick wall beside the terrace
    and plant out all the geranium cuttings.
    Pinks and carnations will be everywhere.
    She will come out to me in the garden,
    her bare feet pale on the cut grass,
    bringing jasmine tea and strawberries on a tray.
    I shall be correcting proofs of my novel
    (third in a trilogy—simultaneous publication
    in four continents); and my latest play
    will be in production at the Aldwych
    starring Glenda Jackson and Paul Scofield
    with Olivier brilliant in a minor part.
    I shall probably have finished my translations
    of Persian creation myths and the Pre-Socratics
    (drawing new parallels) and be ready to start
    on Lucretius. But first I'll take a break
    at the chess championships in Manila—
    on present form, I'm fairly likely to win.
    And poems? Yes, there will certainly be poems:
    they sing in my head, they tingle along my nerves.
    It is all magnificently about to begin.

From POEMS, 1960–2000, by Fleur Adcock, published by Bloodaxe Books, 2000.