……….

Arch me outwards now high in the spinning sky

no more the still centre in a turning world       trajectory despatched

beyond the sun no destination      light fades and grows

stars pass      coalescence of speed and time

so many worlds      outwards from our own

no goal beyond the seeking eye      returning to the inward vision.

 

I don’t know how it is but suddenly there is peace

After the political struggles of the week

paranoid over-reaction, sense of guilt, fighting,

Odysseus plans and a battle won

surreptiously – yes - in the warm room

and beyond the windows in the wet street

I hear things just as they are

when the noise dies down.

Sparrows are chirping in the eaves

a man exercises two dogs on straining leads,

children play.

Sunk in my belly here I am

a time for movements of the mind.