Authors’ Ghosts Muriel Spark I think that authors’ ghosts creep back‍‍ Nightly to haunt the sleeping shelves‍‍ And find the books they wrote.‍‍ Those authors put final, semi-final touches,‍‍ Sometimes whole paragraphs.‍‍ Whole pages are added, re-written, revised,‍‍ So deeply by night those authors employ‍‍ Themselves with those old books of theirs.‍‍ How otherwise‍‍ Explain the fact that maybe after years‍‍ Have passed, the reader‍‍ Picks up the book – But was it like that?‍‍ I don’t remember this . . . Where‍‍ Did this ending come from?‍‍ I recall quite another.‍‍ Oh yes, it has been tampered with‍‍ No doubt about it –‍‍ The author’s very touch is here, there and there,‍‍ Where it wasn’t before, and‍‍ What’s more, something’s missing –‍‍ I could have sworn . . .