He is bronze, yet has avoided that
most humiliating blow, to be
melted into coinage. One hand rests
over the other, in leather gloves.
The money's forgotten. Exhausted,
turning in blind acceptance to hear
whatever the referee tells him,
that it's all over perhaps. To see
the scars, battered eye and swollen ears
(and the pains taken to portray them
in dark alloy and red copper) is
to see not defeat but dignity.
The Boxer by John Greening | Poetry Fabric Box
$15.00Price
John Greening is a British poet, author of over twenty collections including The Interpretation of Owls: Selected Poems 1977-2022 (Baylor UP, ed.Kevin Gardner). As well as critical studies and translations, he has produced several anthologies and editions of other poets such as Matthew Arnold, Edmund Blunden, Geoffrey Grigson, Iain Crichton Smith and U.A.Fanthorpe. A book of essays, photographs and poems, A High Calling, appeared earlier this year and his Rilke is due from Baylor this autumn.
