53. A Short Story of Falling by Alice Oswald - A Friend to Charlie

53. A Short Story of Falling by Alice Oswald - A Friend to Charlie

By The Poetry Exchange

In this episode, Charlie talks with us about the poem that has been a friend to him – 'A Short Story of Falling' by Alice Oswald.

Charlie joined The Poetry Exchange online, via video call, for one of our 'Lockdown Exchanges' and is in conversation with Poetry Exchange team members, Fiona Bennett Alistair Snell.

Many thanks to Alice Oswald and United Agents for granting us permission to share the poem in this capacity. Find out more about Alice and her work here: www.unitedagents.co.uk/alice-oswald


Al reads the gift reading of 'A Short Story of Falling'.


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A Short Story of Falling


It is the story of the falling rain

to turn into a leaf and fall again


it is the secret of a summer shower

to steal the light and hide it in a flower


and every flower a tiny tributary

that from the ground flows green and momentary


is one of water's wishes and this tale

hangs in a seed-head smaller than my thumbnail


if only I a passerby could pass

as clear as water through a plume of grass


to find the sunlight hidden at the tip

turning to seed a kind of lifting rain drip


then I might know like water how to balance

the weight of hope against the light of patience


water which is so raw so earthy-strong

and lurks in cast-iron tanks and leaks along


drawn under gravity towards my tongue

to cool and fill the pipe-work of this song


which is the story of the falling rain

that rises to the light and falls again


Reprinted by permission of Alice Oswald and United Agents

Source: Falling Awake (W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2016)


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