Pause for Poetry (24)

A few evenings ago we were all having dinner and I mentioned the concept of “Martian poetry”. Basically, it is a way of getting readers to see ordinary objects in an unusual way.

My family was intrigued so I read them the poem "A Martian Sends A Postcard Home" by Craig Raine.

I then asked them if they knew what items or things were being referred to throughout the poem. It was interesting to see the different interpretations of the same images. Needless to say, Brainbox identified the most difficult passages.

I’ve jotted down at the end some of the “answers” in case you’re puzzled, but who’s to say I’m right!

A Martian Sends A Postcard Home

Caxtons are mechanical birds with many wings
and some are treasured for their markings --

they cause the eyes to melt
or the body to shriek without pain.

I have never seen one fly, but
sometimes they perch on the hand.

Mist is when the sky is tired of flight
and rests its soft machine on ground:

then the world is dim and bookish
like engravings under tissue paper.

Rain is when the earth is television.
It has the property of making colours darker.

Model T is a room with the lock inside --
a key is turned to free the world

for movement, so quick there is a film
to watch for anything missed.

But time is tied to the wrist
or kept in a box, ticking with impatience.

In homes, a haunted apparatus sleeps,
that snores when you pick it up.

If the ghost cries, they carry it
to their lips and soothe it to sleep

with sounds. And yet they wake it up
deliberately, by tickling with a finger.

Only the young are allowed to suffer
openly. Adults go to a punishment room

with water but nothing to eat.
They lock the door and suffer the noises

alone. No one is exempt
and everyone's pain has a different smell.

At night when all the colours die,
they hide in pairs

and read about themselves --
in colour, with their eyelids shut.


Caxtons – books; Model T – car; sleeping apparatus – telephone (Princess Perfect thought this might be a cat or baby); time tied to the wrist – watch; punishment room – lavatory; read about themselves in colour – dreaming.