BRITTANY
A country of the sea
understanding a coastline of language
with a tangle of coves, pierced rocks,
bays struggling on a day of increasing rain
to survive with a changing atmosphere
as the camellias blossom
beneath an ever-permutating sky.
Armor, Pointe de Pen-Hir,
Finistere, Carnac megaliths,
an identity with the root of names,
moors yellow with words of gorse and sharp
broom, as a headland points
towards the legend of foam-flecked waves,
wine-dark at evening,
moving like summer's blood.
IN PURSUIT OF VENUS
A scenic vase with flowers
on the sill of a house
faces the clothes line
hung in a February alleyway
transformed today
into a necklace worn
by Venus, queen of laughter,
mother of love,
rich globules of liquid -
pearls which mirror
a benevolent zone's
splendour after the rain.
A GIRL READING
I see her
sitting alone
engaged with words
that the mind's eye
translates into private thought.
How many hours
has she inhabited this place?
Shut inside a landscape
where language
makes a difference,
absorbs and changes.
She focuses on pages
that turn quietly
with the eloquent breeze,
like those silent years
keeping time
under matured
skies and remembered fields.
WATCHING
Watching waves through
a library window,
I saw a painter standing
near the shoreline
with the afternoon light.
Footprints that walked
towards the troubled sea,
imagination drawn there
by the coast's echoing
question as to where all
the labyrinths of life disappear.
Before leaving the wide frame
he paused,
a personal composition
that soon changed within
a resurrected air.
THE BLACK BOOK
The air modulates
through the grass,
each note a process
towards a gradual
understanding,
a definite sound
within words
written by a single
hand surviving
the fallen centuries.
Memory brings
the sense of light,
a river's rebirth,
nature's benevolent strength
as an unknown scribe
felt the pulse of language,
its flow and music
on imagination's durable parchment.
* The Black Book of Carmarthen is one of the most important surviving manuscripts in the Welsh language. It was written by a single scribe at Carmarthen Priory in about 1250. It includes religious poems and poems about the heroes of the Dark Age.
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