waiting for beauty

I mentioned recently that I was reading the new J.A. Baker biography (as pictured in the extra), by Hetty Saunders; which I've now finished and would highly recommend ...

... Saunders has interestingly included several of Baker's early poems in the appendices to the volume, with pictures of original drafts - as per the main snap here - which shows one he wrote on February 1946:
 
 
Waiting in the Train

Pebbles of rain soft-falling,
Flecking dark pools on the platform;
Lamps huddled in mist,
And the rain slow-falling.
Dark pools reflect the station arches,
Sombre against the fading day.
Occasional passers
Splash to pieces
The mirrored frescoes of the arches.
From the compartment,
Through the window hazed with breath,
I watch the passers
Treading out beauty,
Unaware.

---

J. A. Baker (1926 - 1987)

---