My Leaves
‘I feel as if I’m losing all my leaves. The branches, and the wind, and the rain….
’ I feel as if I’m losing all my leaves. The branches, and the wind, and the rain. I don’t know what’s happening anymore.’ - Anthony (‘The Father’)
Struggling wordlessly into the light
Startling eruption of limb
As green as green has ever been
Flowing and fumblingly growing
Out of dark moist cloister
Hail Mary
Blessed is the fruit
Of thy womb
Pray for us now1
We are born
Sun-seekers
Gargantuan
Being-eaters
To be eaten
Composable
Cooperation of cell
Atomistic apostles of Aten
Those on Earth come from your hand as you made them
When you have dawned they live
When you [have gone] they die
You yourself are lifetime, one lives by you
All eyes are on your beauty until you set
All labour ceases when you rest in the west2
Deliciously off-kilter
Younglings
Rare and delicate
Star-fire flowers
Bestowers of heart
Murderous and monstrous
Little mesdames et messieurs
Wyrdlings of woe and wonder
Gigglous adorations
Time’s incarnations
An ash I know, Yggdrasil its name,
With water white is the great tree wet;
Thence come the dews that fall in the dales,
Green by Urth’s well does it ever grow.
…Laws they made there, and life allotted
To the sons of men, and set their fates.3
Each and every
A-symmetry
Or fault
Is ready to take that shape
And form uniquely our own
If only we can survive
The violence
Of glorious
Juvenescence
That most exciting journey to behold
For the gods and the old
_The Spirit is not born and does not die _
_It does not come into being or cease _
It is not destroyed with the passing of the body
_So why do you cry?_4
Broadening boughs
Pushing down roots
Weathering wizening
Procreators
Strange standing waves
Beautifully cracked
Hallow vessels
That sing when touched
Strengthening to girth
Heavier crowns
Good God
Grace a’me
Bless mine
Hold time
Momentarily
Quick spinning seasons
Where everything speeds
Achingly open spaces
Free for next year’s trees
Identities distilled
To essence
Sapping slowly
Dissolving memory
Hinting of patiently
Waiting eternity
All living things decay
They cannot stay.
_Be _
Carefully
To gain your
Salvation.
Cleave
The bonds
That bind.
Reflect, refract
_The undying light_5 _ _
Though we may grieve
There is no staying grief
We are life’s loves
Labours lost
That leaf
Then leave
This poem is dedicated to Sir Anthony Hopkins.
The Father (film version)
Footnotes
- From “The Hail Mary", derived from the Gospel of Luke, circa 85 CE. ↩︎
- Miriam Lichtheim, translation from Great Hymn to the Aten, circa 1350 BCE, “Ancient Egyptian Literature: Volume II: The New Kingdom” 2006 CE. ↩︎
- Henry Adams Bellows, translation of “Völuspá”, original circa 960 CE, Poetic Edda, lines 19–20, translation 1936 CE. ↩︎
- Bhagavad Gita 2:20, circa 200 BCE: my re-interpretation. ↩︎
- Gautama Buddha, selections from his last teachings and words, circa 486 BCE, Mahāparinibbāna Sutta. My poetic re-interpretation. See also Mary Oliver’s wonderful, “The Buddha’s Last Instruction”, House of Light, 1992 CE. ↩︎