The Path
Past it all, through wars and the lives of popes,
People who buy fish in markets still wait.
But we, where fishing boats will come, look out
On an empty sea and the present sleeps.
Walking a lane from old sea defences,
Suddenly, in the undergrowth, we find
A path. And in the spring, every sound
Collects, birds in choirs and insect dances.
Reeds bend in a pond, branches on the sky,
And a whole language I can never learn
For a short distance leaves us waiting on
Secrets that to know would be too risky.
In a stillness where the sunlight collects,
There is something to watch for till it fades
But something other in a path that leads
Among the trees where sea noise interacts.
It leads us to the shingle crunching shore
To fishing boats appearing on the tide.
Turning back, woodland, like a bed unmade,
Resumes a coldness that the world may share.
Page(s) 20-21
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