I saw the standing stones dance

with one another

and chapels on fire

in the eyes of onlookers

I heard a cockerel

reciting a doggerel

to a dying magpie

its wings stilled

its head devoid of feathers

one for sorrow

in the light I find darkness

I am overcome

in the darkness I find the light

I am overcome

I’m turning into gold

I’m turning into flame

which will I become first?

what will I be

fire or precious metal

or burned out?

your name at the back of my eyes

photographed so I don’t forget it

a jpeg for when I hear no more

in the light I find darkness

I am overcome

in the darkness I find the light

I am overcome

where are the saints?

they've been living

in a modest dwelling

a few streets away

since the last time

they went out of fashion

I am neither saint nor hero

just a kind of man

bending into a wind

I think is coming my way

in the light I find darkness

I am overcome

in the darkness I find the light

I am overcome

when I was a boy

I climbed the Direction Tree

I have forgotten which way

it pointed

and where it grew

it was the World Tree

from the time when

all the world was tree

I have lost so much

since I descended from

its cloud nested branches

a green hue on the seat

of my trousers

in the light I find darkness

I am overcome

in the darkness I find the light

I am overcome

blankets for winter

eyes for fog

slip into it

slip out of it

I hear a thunderclap

on a mountain top

and stories of armies

of rats marching

led by a single white rodent monarch

I walk through the Valley of the Ancestors

hand in hand with a ghost

I neither see nor feel

those spectral families

we all know and love

even if we don’t admit that

like much of Love

in the light I find darkness

I am overcome

in the darkness I find the light

I am overcome

updated by @paul-steffan-jones2: 11/07/17 07:36:26PM