Trying to find this poem.... at Old Poetry

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Sarahs Chanson
Jan 26 12:09 PM
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I've read a few lines from a poem and can't find the author and title anywhere. I've search all the search engines and many other sites for the answer but am at a loss! I know some of the lines go:

Scraping suitcases and laughter. Shall I go down?
I hear my name called, peer over the bannister
And remember something I left in my bedroom.
What can it have been? The window is wide open.
The curtains move. The light sways. The cold sets in.

If anyone could help it would be great as I'm really frustrated over this!!

Sarah
I-Like-Rhymes
February 1
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I have racked my brain with no effect. I have also tried a variety of key word searches on the www and all I have come up with was your enquiry on another site!!
Unfortunately the style does not put me in mind of a specific writer and the lines do not remind me of any poems in my own collection.
However perhaps some of our readers may be able to help and put us both out of our bewilderment.
Jim
Oldpoetry Research Team
hiraeth
March 19
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I too tried to find this via search engines, to no avail, as it was familiar to me, too. I finally found a reference to the poem in an article on JStor (which is probably why you couldn't find anything, cos you have to subscribe to it).

So, I believe this is a poem by James Fenton, a contemporary British poet... I'm not sure what the title is, but it might be from "A Vacant Possession."
- I-Like-Rhymes
  March 20
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  Thanks for the info.
  James Fenton was born in Lincoln in 1949 and was stil writing in Januray this year so would not qualify for inclusion here. Also he is careful of copyright and has little poetry on the web so I am afraid that means going out and buying one of his books.