Live Stream: Atlas by U.A. Fanthorpe

In today's Shared Reading live stream we are reading Atlas by U.A. Fanthorpe with Frances Macmillan editor of The Reader Magazine.

The theme for our readings in March is 'Springing Forward' and we hope the poetry, readings and recommendations we have chosen can help us stay connected over the coming weeks. Download the calendar here.

Atlas

There is a kind of love called maintenance
Which stores the WD40 and knows when to use it;

Which checks the insurance, and doesn’t forget
The milkman; which remembers to plant bulbs;

Which answers letters; which knows the way
The money goes; which deals with dentists

And Road Fund Tax and meeting trains,
And postcards to the lonely; which upholds

The permanently rickety elaborate
Structures of living, which is Atlas.

And maintenance is the sensible side of love,
Which knows what time and weather are doing
To my brickwork; insulates my faulty wiring;
Laughs at my dryrotten jokes; remembers
My need for gloss and grouting; which keeps
My suspect edifice upright in air,
As Atlas did the sky.

U.A. Fanthorpe

The Reader is grateful to the Estate of U.A. Fanthorpe for permission to read ‘Atlas’, from Selected Poems by U.A. Fanthorpe (Enitharmon Press).