Tuesday 17 March 2009

Inspired Verse

Here is a poem I wrote as an exercise in a literature class. I was given the title only. Enjoy. Lionel

Why Me In the Grey Dawn Dangling?

No moon this night and stars but briefly
Glimpsed in cloudless, darkened gaps.
Across the moors, haunting scream of vixen
As she meets her mate, together to stalk
The hills for partridge, rabbit, hare.

Like a Geisha’s face the eastern sky, as
Anaemic sun, vacating summer skies,
Illumines northern chill, like absent moon
Peeking o’er the rim, cold and ghostly. Nocturnal
Beasts detect the change and hurry home.

“Alone and palely loitering,” he stands
Shivering on the cheerless heath.
Maybe La Belle Dame wanders here,
In some waking dream has him ensnared.
Or has the pale, grey dawn unhinged his mind?

Scarce tinged with pink or gold,
The eastern sky grows lighter still.
His mood reflects this sombre scene, and yet
His heart suspended hangs, as though
Outside his frame it waits – anticipating.

The stillness hangs around him like a shroud,
Deafening in its timeless quiet – that pause while
Daylit nature gathers her collective voice.
Lark, curlew, raven, hawk and lamb, not quite
Awake to welcome e’en this cheerless morn.

Eye transfixed, heartbeat racing,
Beneath his feet the ling’s transformed.
Wonder grows as skeletal limbs
Suffuséd are with brilliant lights
And glow of purest gold.

All around the light shines bright,
Not light from any earthly sun, but
Light celestial, light that speaks.
He shines and joins; where light
And sound and colour meet.

His trancéd eyes traverse the scene,
The moor ablaze, but from within.
He knows – No doubts - No hesitation.
This inner light is life, and in its glow
All things unite: All knowledge is revealed.

The light speaks but transcends all words,
He understands all things but knows not why,
In all its glorious, simple symmetry,
This time-suspended moment, beyond reason,
Beyond vocabulary, embraces all that is.

A moment? No more and yet it seemed
Eternity. Eternity in which to know eternity.
Stirring now he sees a dawn, beautiful
With knowledge lately gained,
All is one and one is all.

All is light and all perfection,
The meanest thing is not mundane.
Time and space and love united.
Humbly he asks in thankful joy,
“Why me in the grey dawn dangling?

© Lionel Owen 1996 (Revised 2007)

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