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        Pete Atkin >> Words >> "The Wren and the Coconut" by Clive James
        
(Message started by: Kevin Cryan on Today at 22:31)

Title: "The Wren and the Coconut" by Clive James
Post by Kevin Cryan on Today at 22:31

http://www.newstatesman.com/sites/default/files/nsnewlogo_2014.jpg

20 November 2015

"The Wren and the Coconut" (http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/poetry/2015/11/wren-and-coconut-poem-clive-james): a poem by Clive James

Quote:

…...

There was a time when all the WRENs were women
Who shone like Dana Wynter* in Sink the Bismarck:
So spick and span, so suitable for marriage
Back there in the war.
I wonder if they still are, wonder why,
While barely knowing a blue tit from a bullfinch,
I’m so stuck on old military hardware.
You’d think I might have put all that behind me.
I’m here to watch the feeding and the flying.
….....

read on (http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/poetry/2015/11/wren-and-coconut-poem-clive-james)

http://explore.bfi.org.uk/sites/explore.bfi.org.uk/files/styles/gallery_full/public/bfi_stills/bfi-00n-5wx.jpg?itok=IO3-NOZt
*Dana Wynter, Kenneth More
Sink the Bismarck! (1960) | BFI
explore.bfi.org.uk (http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b6b607180)

Kevin Cryan

Title: Re: "The Wren and the Coconut" by Clive James
Post by Sylfest on 08.12.15 at 23:44

"braced on his thin splayed legs
That somehow conjure up the undercarriage,
Hinged at the wing root to fold outwards,
Of the Spitfire or the Me 109"

Definitely a wren, Clive. Don't let them tell you otherwise.