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Journey to the edge
"The dazzling 10,000 strand necklace
of icicles
that make up Saturn's rings"
(Tim Radford, Science Editor Guardian
6.11.03)
Today
felt like the last day of the world
it
was warm, an unusual November sun
lit
the underside of a buzzard's wings
ringed
with dark feathers.
In
each field cows appeared, skins
fresh
like black and white satin.
I
remembered a line from On living
"This
earth will grow cold/a star among stars"
-
it was hard to imagine.
The
day was warm with sun.
I
wanted to make love to lean-muscled beech-trees
feel
hardness press into me
my
hair would sizzle like gold leaves
burst
with fired sugar sweet, sweeter
than
caramelised toffee.
"This
is where the solar magnetic field begins
fades into insignificance,
where blasts of windsslow
to less than the speed of sound."
and
Voyager One
will
pass beyond the heliopause
where
sun's influence wanes beyond
where
Jupiter's Moon, Io, ejects sulphur
thirty
times higher than Everest
where
Saturn's rings and the mysteries of Uranus end.
This
morning the first moment was born
on
"one of the smallest stars
-
a gilded mote on blue velvet."
Footnote:
Quotes
from "On living" by Nazim Hikmet
The
Guardian, Tim Radford
7.11.2003
*
* *
Version 4:
Someone has stolen the message...
The empty green bottle was once full
it
stood in the middle of a concrete square
I
made the bottle into a tree
it
was green and brown, bottles hung there.
My
words hang in the tree
deeper
than skin
deeper
than bone
now
I give the tree to you
to
hang your secrets on
my
words will move you
together
we will share the blue
together
we will become the tree that was once a bottle
that
was once sand
-
the bottle will deepen your mystery
you
will drink and sleep its words
they
will stir memories buried in you
and
you will become the bottle
that
was once sand
the
words
that
were once a tree.
A
whisper has gone round
…
who will find it?
11.11.2003
* * *
I
have to howl to
remind myself I'm alive
There
was calm at the stone circle
yesterday
as
the sun went its way
to
the west
many
cameras caught
its
passing
but
the Moon, my dear, rose
in
the east
29.10.2003
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Imagination
Bones follow me on my walks
in
rock white quartz
ancestors
surround me.
They
walk with me
they
are my companions
and
are not unkind.
I
offer blue sky and
Autumn's
bright sun
-
prisons deny us them
but
they live on
in
our imagination.
7.11.2004
*
* *
I want to touch
I want to touch the bones of the universe
see,
smell, sense, taste, gases
before
they fall
before
dna spirals into form
before
worms and humans crawl from mud
born
of primal, antediluvial slime
I
want to touch the sound of stars before I die.
6.11.03
* * *
Famine-time
It was the time of famine
winter-bitten
our
warmth the moon
each
day we went to the church
-
not to pray
to
collect wood
for
food
for
fuel
each
day we brought out
beams
crosses
pews
I
remember it was famine-time
moon-boned
an
Ikon of the Madonna and baby remained
the
last thing for burning
I
hid it inside my blouse and slept.
11.11.2003
*
* *
Lovers
To lovers everywhere
keep
handfasted to your loved one
even
in hardness and stone
keep
the faith of love alive
even
when your loved one rejects you
keep
your warmth kindled
even
if your love nearly dies
keep
it vibrant with the flame of laughter.
To
lovers everywhere
remember
the small
remember
the eye of a needle
be
prepared to crawl through it sometime
be
prepared to howl with the pain of loss
be
prepared to embrace the world
for
you are one of the world's lovers
hold
it as you would a butterfly.
7.10.2003
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