Ian Caws
Two Lights
At that time of the evening,
light hung between the seven trees,
conveying stillness and a softening
and something by which to measure the days.
Occasionally, cats and birds
were transfigured in its spreading
but I stayed with my bookshelves and cupboards
and turned on my angled lamp for reading.
And different altogether,
it lifted words from the pages,
leaving the other light shapes to gather
that weren’t words or defined by their edges.
Yet what they were was too far off
and not open to eye or touch
so I turned from them as from things unsafe
or a beauty too dangerous to watch.
Now I’m older and take the air
at dusk, find a sense that quickens
with the insects and, mislaying my fear,
it’s the light among the trees that beckons.
Page(s) 14
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