FROM A BALCONY
A flock of goosanders fishes in the Straits,
as ubiquitous oyster catchers whistle
on the shore. In the early evening
the air about our balcony throngs
with birds – swallows whispering, swifts screeching,
two ring-necked doves cooing in the clematis,
and a small flock of sparrows chattering
below – as the last sun shades the mountains
opposite. By night three fishermen
make their profaning way along the pier
with swaying torches. The seeming darkness
above the peaks is thronged with unnamed stars
we cannot see, and their imagined,
and fabled harmonies.
Clive Watkins
August 30, 2021I like this a lot, David—but then I am sucker for loco-descriptive poems, especially ones that, like this, seem to suggest more than they say. The fishermen make ‘their profaning way’ along the pier and, in doing so, establish the scene (and its moment) as sacred. ‘The seeming darkness / above the peaks is thronged with unnamed stars / we cannot see’, as the air about the balcony is ‘thronged’ with birds — these being lovingly named. Birds are stars are birds. The stars, being unseen, are both present and not present: they are there only to the ‘eye of faith’; but their absent-present light stands in a pattern of parallels and contrasts with the torches of the fishermen, whose light, though brighter because closer at hand, will prove more short-lived. Also, and perhaps not irrelevantly, for this aging atheist the conclusion brings back a powerful memory from his far-off Christian childhood of services in the school chapel and of one of my favourite hymns — the one that begins ‘The spacious firmament on high’. It’s by Josepsh Addison, of course. You will be familiar with the opening lines of the final stanza:
What though in solemn silence all
Move round the dark terrestrial ball;
What though nor real voice nor sound
Amidst their radiant orbs be found?
The whole poem can be found here: https://poets.org/poem/spacious-firmament-high.
A fine and understated poem, David.
Mary Clark
September 24, 2021That last line is just wonderful.
Las Finix
September 26, 2021Good memories.