There was winter’s cold and moisture
in the bedclothes, in the walls and floor,
our bodies tired from a long day’s work.
At night I dreamt I caught the two yellow ducklings,
and struggled to keep my hold.
It was easiest keeping them in my breast pockets.
I wanted to bring them home to raise them,
but realized then I didn’t know what
to feed them. I don’t remember the rest.
I probably went to the opera, but this
may have been a dream from the night before.
In the morning, weeding flowerbeds,
Tiia found a little hare crouching under a poppy.
Jaan Kaplinski (trs Sam Hamill and Riina Tamm), from The Wandering Border (Harvill, 1995)
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Published by Anthony Wilson
I am a lecturer, poet and writing tutor. I work in teacher and medical education at the University of Exeter. My anthology Lifesaving Poems was published by Bloodaxe Books in 2015. In 2012 I published Riddance (Worple Press), a collection of poems, and Love for Now (Impress Books), a memoir, about my experience of cancer. My most recent books are Deck Shoes (Impress Books, 2019), a book of prose memoir and criticism, and The Afterlife (Worple Press, 2019). In 2023 I will publish The Wind and the Rain, my sixth collection of poems, with Blue Diode Press. My current research project, with Sue Dymoke from Nottingham Trent University and funded by the Foyle Foundation, is Young Poets' Stories: https://youngpoetsstories.com/. This blog is archived by the British Library.
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Anthony Wilson 
You introduced this poet and poem to us in Manchester a couple of months ago, for which I thank you!
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