Today is National Poetry Day in the UK. By way of a minor contribution I found this poem which I wrote way back in 1975 I think.
Be at peace O my brothers.
Fear not the chasm that lies beneath
the rock of your mortality.
Be at peace O my brothers.
The black night shakes and with its shield
the storm clouds struggle
wrestling with one another across the sky
but be not afraid.
The morning dawns, a bowl of light
The power of which is glory.
Even as streaks of the imperial sun
like fire singe the paper rim of heaven
spreading their golden tendrils
like a flowr
a strange, uncanny, luminous plant unfolding
blossoming in the heart of darkness
the day engendered crows triumphant,
the bright blade cuts the edge of sawn.
Lightning fizzles,
a damp squib splutters in decay
and thunder rolls unheeded in the gutter.
Such a little thing is man.
A leaf trembles
cold in the morning dew,
a river of fresh opalescence
traces a slender path along its veins,
the perfect miniature of a mountain stream,
a crystalline tear
shimmering through the spectrum forms and falls,
a piece of beauty in an unmade world.
Be not afraid my brothers
though the darkness threatens to engulf you
for out of the darkness will come light.
Such a little thing is man
But such a thing of nature as is the universe.
It is a thing of beauty.
Do not strive too hard to understand.
Carol Richards Copyright (c) 1975
