Poetry Magazines - The best collection of poetry magazines online - Simon Armitage

My light above your dark—

Blue sky and clouds coasting into late afternoon
Midnight’s hypnotic oasis of trees

The summer house off the road marked by only a lamp post
Its inverted glow held in a reflecting pool.
Here you inhabit at last
A country of sleep long unvisited, now exhaled among the
estate’s murmurous leaves.

Warm against the blinds even if glimpsed from outside
The shimmer of a night-light you leave switched on by your bed.

A stray moth dances phoenix-like round the flicker
Barely a few hours freed of its chrysalis
Insomnia’s wings no longer expansive, but singed
The sun’s radiance till now joyless to imagine

The aftershocks never so disorderly as remorselessly effaced

Even at the hands of the planet’s clockwork sweep towards dawn
While uncountable times you turn away in bed from your lamp
In unseeing anger, its light not really your light
Its talisman of hope, you fear, not really yours to anticipate.

Never forget the night sky, its mnemonic of daylight
Never forget the night sky, its mnemonic of daylight

Its talisman of hope, you fear, not really yours to anticipate
In unseeing anger, its light not really your light
While uncountable times you turn away in bed from your lamp.
Even at the hands of the planet’s clockwork sweep towards dawn

The aftershocks never so disorderly as remorselessly effaced

The sun’s radiance till now joyless to imagine
Insomnia’s wings no longer expansive but singed.
Barely a few hours freed of its chrysalis
A stray moth dances phoenix-like round the flicker

The shimmer of a night-light you leave switched on by your bed
Warm against the blinds even if glimpsed from outside
A country of sleep long unvisited, now exhaled
                                          among the estate’s murmurous leaves.
Here you inhabit at last
Its inverted glow held in a reflecting pool
The summer house off the road marked by only a lamp post—

Midnight’s hypnotic oasis of trees
Blue sky and clouds coasting into late afternoon—

Your light above my dark.