29 OCTOBER 1965, Page 25

Shakespeare Road, SE24

No marble. Yet low down Under the windows of this corner shop A multicoloured frieze, Crazy patchwork of little bits, Hand-made, one man's defiance. No picture postcards and no statuettes; No call for them here As in that other place Where now they look for him, His absence is bought and sold, Grassily quiet now In orchard walled or hedged Sweeten mutations of his leathercoat,

Pomewater, costard, codling, applejohn, Bussetting too, the rare, the dying savours. Blackbird and thrush and linnet, the same, the same,

Stng to no ear quite open,

„'tioo eye quite open dares nor lens can follow lausiness the winds and clouds transact

With light, green light, half-sunbeams with the leaves.

Here, then. Look for him here Where boys ride bicycles ,over rubble, skirting grey van gutted of its engine, dumped Outside the Council Works;

Down a long row Of dingy terrace houses ,‘"111(1. facing it, a barred and spiked embankment

‘-' willow herb and refuse, depots and railway sidings, His road, and anyone's, With relics of a sort, .tle rag and bone man's horse,

pee rag and bone man's wares, rhaPs his book, patched and passed on, ived in, moved through.

MICHAEL HAMBURGER