Thom Gunn's "Positives" Poems, 1966

All of Thom Gunn's poems to accompany Ander Gunn's photos of a woman's life - from toddler to crone - are stunning but this is probably the best known. They appear in Positives (1966).

Photo by Ander Gunn

Something approaches, about

which she has heard a good deal.

Her deaf ears have caught it, like a

silence in the wainscot

by her head. Her flesh has felt

a chill in her feet, a draught

in her groin. She has watched it

like moonlight on the frayed wood

stealing toward her

floorboard by floorboard. Will it hurt?

Let it come, it is

the terror of full repose,

and so no terror. 

More about Thom Gunn (1929-2004):

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/109