Couplets

Michael Longley

1.

When I was young I wrote that flowers are very slow flames

And you uncovered your breasts often among my images.


2.

Without moonlight or starlight we forgot about love

As we joined the blind ewe and the unsteady horses.


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Michael Longley (1939–2025) was a Northern Irish poet. He was a winner of the Whitbread Poetry Prize and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Originally published:
March 18, 2026

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