A Little Tribute to John Cage

‘Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating.’ – John Cage

My computer humming
while triangles dance on the screen.

A blackbird singing,
perched on the garden gate.

The soft scratch of my pencil
as I write these words.

A trio for computer,
blackbird and pencil.

One continuous sound, one random,
one controlled by me.

The pencil’s part is almost over,
When it stops

uncollected poem, © Wendy Cope 2016, used by permission of the author

Wendy Cope in the Poetry Store

The free tracks you can enjoy in the Poetry Archive are a selection of a poet’s work. Our catalogue store includes many more recordings which you can download to your device.

Glossary

Featured in the archive

Close