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

Poetry Library Southbank Centre - The Poetry Library housing the Arts Council Collection at Southbank Centre

« Previous item
Contents of this issue
Next item »

Fred Johnston

print this page

Gaudete


For all those who protest against US military presence at Shannon,
and the use of Shannon as a refuelling stop for rendition flights.


As we are guided by our heart’s star
and lie opposed under the mind’s mid-winter
in ambush in the dark of the dead word,
let us praise the harried tent
the young girls blowing on their hands
warming the human under the iron engines
of aircraft bellied with shackled men
and men stirring in their guns,
let us thank the blind trees for their whisper
and the yellow lights of police-loud roads
for their oppositions; let us make a fire
in the currents of dumb air, where
the least hymn finds a chorus in the grass -
around the animal roar of aircraft
let a constellation of prayers lay itself out
like a map of possibilities
and the proud girl afraid and the boy afraid
still stand there where the office
of the harsh unvoted law is read aloud
from ash-grey pages - and ash on our heads -
both of them reciting to the breathing
of aviation-fuel over and over,
an untranslatable, every-tongued syllable of hope.

 

Page(s) 41

Back to top