Friday, September 25, 2015

Jonathan Beale- Two Poems



After Hokusai

Fishing by torchlight

(From fishing by torchlight in Kai Province)

As men & fish find together in the night
Playing a game of chess: against the liquid cosmos
This weaving river cravating.
Fish muse beneath the moonlight
Flicking, twitching, dancing on their own
Fishy reel – music as the delicate
Rivers silk reflects this silk moon
The basest reason our basest beggars are
As they – fishing in the night.
The draw must reveal
When they break the water
In a new waterless world
The act is complete – the lesson
Will be repeated again
Tomorrow, and
Tomorrow…   


St Francis and the Birds by Stanley Spencer

In his basic brown cassock
St Francis Was at one –
Embracing the Sky and earth
And all that’s in-between

The ducks and chickens in their grace
Follow that path: greatness of humanity
Creatures of life.  Creatures most honest
Their chain is unbreakable.

No one can put asunder they live
They walk together along one path
Quite simply the atavistic
The saints steps with the

Fowls remains
Forever.


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