'Facing The Chair'

by Hugh MacDiarmid

	Here under the rays of the sun
	Where everything grows so vividly
	In the human mind and in the heart,
	Love, life, and all else so beautifully,
	I think again of men as innocent as I am
	Pent in a cold unjust walk between steel bars,
	Their trousers slit for the electrodes
	And their hair cut for the cap
	Because of the unconcern of men and women,
	Respectable and respected and professedly Christian,
	Idle-busy among the flowers of their gardens here
	Under the gay-tipped rays of the sun.
	And I am suddenly completely bereft
	Of la grande amitié des choses créés,
	The unity of life which can only be forged by love

Poem © Copyright Hugh MacDiarmid

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