Monday 8 April 2013

falling



Running in circles in a Preseli field,
I was holding on tight while you pedalled the bike,
Not letting go; until I finally did let go,
And you became Icarus, six years old and flying down the hill,
Finally out of sight round the green lane’s corner.
The whole afternoon held its breath. A gorse pod popped.
And there you were again, waving like a loon.
All this was ours. At night we named the stars,
Tracing Orion’s belt over Dinas Head
As the mice rustled in the hedge.
There was still magic back then,
When you first found out the world’s unfair,
But the hurt could be kissed better.

These April nights, sometimes the clouds part,
And the old familiar shapes appear,
Orion, the Pleiades glow, Cassiopeia;
And there’s the comet that I hoped to see,
Faint there over Filton, soluble aspirin of a star,
Too dim by far to warn of bloody war,
Foretell the fall of emperors.
But bloody wars there are, and emperors do fall.
And for some hurts there is no remedy.
Tonight, I look beyond the stars and see more stars,
And, further, even more, until the sky is deep enough
To fall into for ever.
But we have shared the stars, and just for now
I tell myself that that’s enough, and wonder if it’s true.

4 comments:

  1. We all need a bit of magic - it's out there if we look, for sure.

    I think my favourite line is 'the mice rustled in the hedge' and about it being magic. Silly really, but it reminds me of a walk I took with friends. They hung back talking and I saw two mice in the wall (at eye-height)so engrossed in fighting, they completely ignored me. It felt as if I had looked into a secret world.

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  2. something like that happened over at Ashton Court one day, in the wild meadow; two weasels came tumbling along the hedge and had a huge rough-and-tumble right at our feet. Katie's face was a picture. Maybe mine was too.

    The mice in the hedge had their origin in another cherished memory; lying in a tent listening to a mouse eating some leftover chips...

    I'm glad it sparked a particular memory for you too!

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  3. I loved the 'soluble aspirin of a star' - in fact I love it all, the way the tiny details of reality,tenderness, love, memory and perception combine to create an experience we can not only share but identify with and so become willing participants in the magic you've created here. Thank you for this, Dru, because we're all in need a bit of magic and especially the magic of what's around us.

    john

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  4. thank you, John. Glad you overcame the commenting thing!

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