Stagnation

Skies slept, or looked
The other way.
Exonerate nobody.

The eye of
Heaven detached.
Justice cataracted.

On earth, men
Slaughtered, fell
And rotted

And the dead
And living dead
Sank deeper in decay.

Darkness flowered
In cruelty. Gracelessness
Numbed hope.

Heaven there, world
Here, and their only
Meeting place, death.

Grace

Under the hills, quiet
Fire. From their graves
The dead awaken.

Blessing on you
Who live, they call
Through our own voices,

As in their places
We too shall call
Our own unborn.

Under hills, this
Grace flows
Through everything.

Chestnut and oak
Bud, green
Earth's carpet.

Red tulip petals
Scatter. A blue
Butterfly hovers.

Winter Solstice

It is the year's
Sabbath. Rest,
Take in quietness

From the dammed
Valleys, walled
Canyons, like a bare

Tree's taproots
In darkness. Let
It swell through you

As water gathered
On underground granite
Pools resources

To well upwards
Its meniscus clawing
Slowly at light.

Currents are rising
Beneath earth. Drink
Deep that good water.

In Light / In Fire

1. Night, curtains open

On the window's
Dark outside, rain
Pearls and runnels

And on its inside
The light in here
Accurately reflects itself.

We cannot see
Outside, at least
Not yet. But these

Identities
Soon will fray
And what they hold

Spill out
Into whatever dark or light
Surrounds them. Which

Is as it should be
And no cause
For grief or dancing.

2. Dawn

Dawn lay
Mother of pearl
Below the rooftops.

Trees
In purple robes
Lined their avenues.

Mists pillowed
The hills like
Quiet sheep.

Without lifting
A finger, light
Unlocked the gardens.

Window panes
Glistened in dew
When day breathed on them.

Something like glory
Hung all over
The air.

3. Morning, open windows

Sunlight is flickering
On the far wall
From the window

In our sitting room
And the leaves
Of houseplants

On the windowsill
Scatter their magnified
Shadows there

Daubing and splashing
The whole wall,
Bathing and swathing

The entire interior
In singular
Unrepeatable

Patterned waves
Where nothing can
Or will keep still.

4. Green and Red

Green, the open flimsy
Curtains, and red, the frame
Of the sash window

At the foot of our bed where
This afternoon
I lie, lazy, reading

And green, your tall potted
Houseplant growing in
Front of the window

And green, the rowan
Framed outside it
Against the sky

And brilliant
Red, the rowan's
Berry clusters

A pair of thrushes
Nonchalantly
Peck and scatter.

5. Glory

No fire flames once.
That which is bright
Rises twice.

Sunset and dawn
Repeat their burning
Searing skies.

Downy boundaries
Of Maytime trees
Flare and will –

White as snows
Or whiter against
Pale leaves. When flame

Clings to the palpable
It connects the world
With invisible

Glory. Everything
Harbours this. Nothing
Ever happens alone.

6. Encased in unhappened time

Light encased
In unhappened time,
Unopened in eyes

Of creatures unborn,
Unformed yet in water
Drops on panes

Of sloping windows
In unbuilt roofs,
Ungathered as yet

In cistern or well,
And uncupped
On parched tongue

On this or that
Space-and-time-
Crafted world –

Here you all are
Sudden in
This now, total.