From This Height

after Tony Hoagland



... of my second floor bedroom
window, I confront the clock
on the church, its round face
watches my waking
spies on my sleeping –

no, I don’t deserve the pleasure
of this simple rented house
overlooking the wren-filled
sycamores, the wide water
with its busy boats and castles

nor do I deserve the pain
of this loneliness, lasting
til dawn, when light slips in
creeping over the supple sea,
drawn by the slow clock of the sun –

everyday, as I climb the hill
behind my house, up granite
steps, over the old cemetery
where history’s bodies lie
lost and unmarked, I commit

an act of forgetting the sadness
I let the morning make me new
celebrate the wide world around
me as the church clock chimes
its first hour of the day, below.

Sometimes

... the world is so grey

and so sad. Sometimes,
the tree weeps whole rivers
grieving for her lost leaves.

13th January 2010

Music

Music

Today’s clouds were music
a melody in a key I’d never heard -
a song called New Day
on the staves of sky - its refrain

‘Pink, Blue, Grey
and Colours You Can’t Name.’

11th January 2010

Winter, Falmouth

Surfers, tadpole-black and slick
slide easily towards land on freezing sea –
free as fish, they tumble in the waves -

while I slip and stumble on the icy path,
tentative like the silver light tracing
the fields, frilling the scallop-edged waves.

Swanpool, 7th January 2010

The Same Old

Every day, the same walk with the same dog
Every day, the same headland, sea and sky
Every day, the same sun rising

Today, the dog and I are a day older
Today, the sky's smeared with pink, the sea's a pearl
Today, the sun is a red wound on the horizon, bleeding.

First Day

New Year’s Morning

I didn’t bring my camera today -
wanted to be in the brightness

of sea-sparkle, sky-sparkle
light touching everything -

let my heart leap like the Dalmatian dog
jumping the waves, over and over -

the black dots of his coat
are small puddles of darkness

he’s carrying in and out of the water
dousing them in diamonds of spray.


1st January 2010

December Evening

December Evening

Dusk walk, out from the woods
over wide fields, a stile, a path
skirting the Iron Age fort,
coastline snaking away from us
both ways, we see wide sky
smeared with cloud and light –
rain stroking the land’s horizon
sun bursting in patches of gold
on a sea suddenly empty of ships
while in the bay, sea sits in heavy
battleship grey, unmoving -

Everything today has two sides –
we walk, you and I, with two dogs,
one black, one white, hurtling in circles
over the high green hill - they follow
you out onto the concrete jetty
where beach becomes water –
I stay on the shore and watch the rain
come in over your dark form –
in the distance, St Anthony’s Lighthouse
slowly blinks as darkness dissolves
today’s bright moments. The moon
almost at her quarter is blown away
by clouds, our footprints soon to be
washed away by rain.

Birds

Cormorant

The Chinese put a ring round your throat
so they can steal any fish you’ve caught

through your quickness – today in the distance
I see you turn your zig-zag neck and beak

into an eyelash, a black arc slipping
the grey wave. When you are too light to dive,

so I read, you swallow pebbles for weight.
Last summer, I saw five of you form the shape

of a star, drop in formation, cutting the sea
as if it were paper, and you characters

in an Oriental language, writing of the heft
of the water you part, the cost of the fish you yield.

9th December 2009

And Joy Befell Me

And Joy Befell Me

Some confusion as we queued at the altar -
suddenly ushered forward by the pretty verger
as the priest approached, to the middle of the rail -
sweet symmetry - and as I knelt - tout de suite,

the host arrived, melted on my tongue, the flesh, the light
her swinging pony tail, all the people, all as one.

Sunday 6th December 2009

Maenporth

Home

For a pair of swans

seven cignets

and all the creatures

out of sight,

this low tide,

this grey water

and softening sky

is house enough

and all they need to live by.

Maenporth Beach 22nd September

Looking for Beauty

Summer colours going now
brightness sinking into green
and grey - memories weigh
heavier than the future
and yet, again the gift, today.

Last Sunday

Yesterday on the water with friends
Everything smooth, all anxiety fled
Beauty above, below, around us
All past and future in the now and blessed.

Blackberrying

Their ripening comes faster now
black clusters of berries
so redolent of my childhood
and teenage years. They greet
and reproach me each summer

It's impossible not to pick
them, stew them with sugar
feel the burst of bitterness
and sweetness on my morning tongue.

Stone Circle

Standing stones, sky, grass

moving clouds, hedgerow, path -

where I passed and came again

something's changed

yet stays the same.

Fugitive

The fugitive sun's returned -

we all come out to look at him

neighbours on their doorstep

joke 'Sshh, don't mention it!'.

Dogs walk face up to the clear sky,
there's a sudden scatter of mushrooms

burgeoning near the path

and on the pavement by my door

a pound coin I didn't drop, gleaming.

Beach Party

Cold swim, clear water, boats, old friends

Dogs, children, shared food on paper plates

Tall trees, fires, light on water, talk, song

A couple deep in love, blazing candles on her birthday cake.

Bees

Now threatened, every bee
on the lavender bush
is a gift, small hint of life,
sunshine, golden jars
of honey to come.

The Past

The past is more than one other country.

Here's one I walked in, alone, so no one

I know remembers the heat or which way to go.

Yesterday, I revisited another country

through talk with a man from a third -

those days are mine alone although maybe I passed

his father there, walking slowly through deep snow.

Grey, grey

Grey, grey, here to stay

Hasn't heard of other days

Grey, grey, won't go away

Grey - tell me what you've got to say.

Small Garden

Yesterday, Cornwall felt small

the house too small, my life

too small. I went into my small

backyard and photographed

small flowers - just pinks in a pot -

each one a miracle, a universe.