David Harsent has published nine collections of poetry, including Marriage (2002), Legion (2005), and Selected Poems, 1969–2005 (2007). His collaborations with Harrison Birtwistle have been performed at venues that include the Royal Opera House and Carnegie Hall.
The Drop
David Harsent
It took a long time to fall, or else it took less than a second. The drop was thirty feet; gravity was acting on me at thirty-two feet per second squared. I can’t do the math but it’s obvious that . . .
Brick 82
The Long Walk to the End of the Garden
David Harsent
The rusty stain on the pillow, the rumble of pain
in his knee, impromptus of a dream in which
he hacked his way out again and again, the dawn
fading up from the green-blue-green of the silver birch,
a flourish . . .