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Burnt Norton

T. Selliott

Friday, May 18th, 2001

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future
And time future contained in time past.
(All right so far?)
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
(So where does this leave the Golden Goal then?)
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
(Well, yes, I can see that,
Like Man. City staying up sort of thing)
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footballs echo in the memory
Down the passage we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose leaves
I do not know.
(Well that’s cleared that up then,
It’s obviously about Birmingham losing on pennos,
We can all go home now)

Notes

New course available on Towards a Theory of Football: Literary Criticism and Hermeneutics. Summer School in Stroud; £150,000 a week. Yurt, talking stick and yoghurt weaving manual provided.

Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/burnt-norton/