Shearsman 50 CHARLES HADFIELD Two Poems Here Now Then Suppose, for example, that the city of Sparta were to become deserted and that only the temples and foundations of buildings remained, I think that future generations would, as time passed, find it very difficult to believe that the place had really been as powerful as it was represented to be (Thucydides)   Olive grove. Trackless dry grass. Dogs. I pick up a stone. Snarl, bark, whistle of shepherds. The outline of theatre walls. All that's left, stones and grass as Thucydides predicted. Dogs bark across these centuries. A man picks tip a stone. Olives ripen in the light. Shepherds whistle: perfect timing.     Off the Edge The difference is here a cloud     sun on water           snow all skies moving rolling evening                  (smile: everyone's own superstitions come together this one special moment!) stick to detail: sandwort, gentian, glacier edelweiss, dunes and it's often like this I find snow on a pass blocking the way down out with the ropes on with the gloves on with the helmet over the side down the ice wall or again, anchors cut loose sails torn no lifejackets and even then the horizon is within reach...   copyright © Charles Hadfield, 2002 Charles Hadfield is the author of two collections: Border Disputes and Inventing Waterfalls, both from the University of Salzburg Press. He lives in Devon.