Still centre

I liked the eddying of water as the wave returned.

(c) A McN

After the April rain

After the April rain
with the woods still steaming
I stole some time away.

Silence
save the drip of silver from each leaf,
the slow steam pressure of the rising sap,
the soft hydraulic hiss of leaves
unfurling in the blades of evening light.

Birdsong bubbles in the air.
Bluebells perfume the stillness.
An owl begins to tune his call.

A white curl of moon emerges as
the blue sky thins to black.

Distant cumulonimbus mountains
slip beyond the curve of night
flickering now and then in a spasm
of summer dreams.

(c) A McN

Swansea morning

(c) A McN

Swansea beach in the morning light

Life's largesse sprinkled freely

When I consider your embrace of my senses in a thousand ways
I can only delight in you.

Light enters my eyes in multiplicities of shape and shade,
hue and chroma, form and focus.

I walk through an ocean of sound and meaning,
from the whispers of breath to the song of
birds holding the silences at bay.

At the day's boundaries where the air is still
my body fills with the delicate semaphores of scent:
mist and dew, earth and leaf;
the scent of Atlantic salt on the air,
mingled with a hundred miles of living land.

The lure of chips and sting of vinegar;
crunch of vegetables, sweet juice of fruit and the
mystery of chocolate melting in the mouth and washing care away.

I celebrate the sense of touch,
the reassuring flicker of my blood dancing daily in its webs beneath my skin,
the touch of rain and sunlight, friend and lover,
wind and saltspray.

I give thanks for warmth and coolness, fur and feather, hug and handshake,
comfy chairs by sunlit windows, hot drinks in cold hands
and soft abandonment of bed.

These are my gifts from God,
life's largesse sprinkled freely,
flowing like a foaming river.

May my appetite for life be large
(but never let the gift eclipse the giver).

(c) A McN