# Fifty Poems

- Link: https://writersworkshopindia.com/2015/07/19/fifty-poems/
- Published: 2015-07-19T19:08:47+00:00
- Author: admin

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**Author:** Paul Roche
 **Pages:** 104 **Year of Publication:** 1999 **Price:** 
HB Rs 150, FB Rs 80 **ISBN:** HB 81-7595-468-X (817595468X) FB 81-7595-469-8 (8175954698)

**_About the Author_**
 When pressed about his age Paul Roche would reply: “I’ll
tell you that when I’m ninety, meanwhile I refuse to be labeled.” Much before this,
when he was in his late twenties, he discovered he was a poet and went on to write
thousands of lines of verse — most of it unpublished. Roche was born in Mussoorie
and spent his first nine years in India, of which his memories were indelible and
his affection undiminished. Many of his books were published by **Writers Workshop**.
He translated several Greek classical works for Penguin USA. Apart from writing,
he took a keen interest in gardening. He passed away in 2007, at the age of 91.

**_Teaser_**

_Midsummer Thames_

Small shifting knives of hundred-broken suns
 Dispersed in liquid sheaves, quickly
shuffled, swaying, Weaving lateral shelves elastically playing — Scaly-moving river-
Thames the amber lizard Slips with diamond eyes his passage through the fields, 
White clouds curling round the copper sun. All day the same, in buttercups he lies
Listening to the trees and turtledoves.

At noon he lolls along with loosetrife-purple tongue
 By banks where horseflies 
hum And mirrors all the golden Iris for his mane; Till slowly summer night Unfolds
her veil of mist … then breathes wild mint Along his way by moon.

**_Contents_**

I. Preface / 7

II. THE RANK OBSTINACY OF THINGS / 9-28
 The Brick / 11 The Coke Bottle (Empty) /
13 The Hairbrush / 15 A Fisherman of Algeciras / 16 The Lesser Pipistrelle / 18 
Midsummer Thames / 20 The Birth of Frog / 21 Child’s Funeral in Mexico / 23 The 
Spider and the Caterpillar / 25

III. ALL THINGS CONSIDERED / 29-46
 A Paradigm of Love / 31 Letter to a Young Girl
Contemplating Marriage with a Poet / 33 Kiss Me while I Am Alive / 35 The Love Ghost/
36 Principessa / 37 When I Opened the Door the Old Lady / 39 On Looking into the
Heart of a Begonia / 40 The Artist / 42 Metaphysics of Failure / 43 The Death of
Two Crabs / 44

IV. TO TELL THE TRUTH / 47-56
 The Function of Art / 49 The Effigies / 51 The Sun
that Breaks upon the Cottage / 53 I Live Like a Walking Canopy of Visions / 54 Progress/
55

V. ENIGMA VARIATIONS AND / 57-65
 The Divine Potency / 59 A Song of Being / 60 Sovereign
Simplicity / 61 Foliage (or Fool’s Knowledge) / 62 Natural Theology / 63 Half a 
Glass of / 64

VI. AS FAR AS I CAN SEE / 66-82
 The Character I Do Not Have / 67 A Child’s Raj /
68 The Body Is the Outside of the Soul / 69 The Eye that Calls the Voice that Waits/
70 Those Whom the Gods Love / 71 The Strong Can Keep the Transient Young / 72 The
Energy of Angels / 73 Pompeii Revisited / 74 Jason and Medea / 78 Artemis and Acaeon/
79 Letter from a Satyr / 80

VII. WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE / 83-100
 Midwestern High Summer in August / 85 Ysola
di Ponza (off Naples) / 87 The Paradoxes of Fate / 89 A Paradigm of Time / 90 In
the Classrooms / 91 The Barbarians Have Come / 92 Some Notes for One Whom the Doctrine
of the Real Presence Is a Stumbling Block / 93 Young Men and Young Women / 96 Saint
Sebastian / 99 Epilogue / 100