Faith

The former synagogue high above the town
bears a plaque
to say here was where
an old faith flourished and faded

and across the town valley
the Methodist Chapel
hangs on by its fingertips, fading in turn

Forget buildings –
Gods are happiest out of doors,
burning bushes,
strolling the tide from St Ives to The Gribben
and back again

I saw The Eye Of The Wind
blown from Southampton to Falmouth,
counting its losses and setting sail again, godly
to Spain

 

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May

May is if-only
Is the colourblind light

A brandnew tallship,
frost-masted

Is colder than March,
yet has the benefit of lilac

Is best not compared
to the May of other years

May is cloud-days,
heads and tails,
the spring's deathbed,

the summer's Norway,
dusks, fiords, forests

 

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December x 2

1

You have your day
as the fir and the spruce
have their day

The forest puts one toe indoors,
the shortest day goes on and on,
as if it will never end

*

2

The last speaker,
wordless in the dusk

Copyright © Penelope Shuttle, 2003