On forging a sword

 

Wayland the Wanderer taught us how to find

the tough, bright iron, never prey to rust,

that not from earth but from the sky is mined

but for myself I’d sooner put my trust

in crucibles and bright electric arcs

with iron, carbon, tungsten, manganese,

vanadium…  assayed by fiery sparks

and spectrographs. We mix them as we please,

surpassing any ancient recipe,

katana of Japan, Toledo steel,

in fiery melts, controlled to fine degree.

We get our billet, stamped with maker’s seal

and those proportions that the chemist found,

in heavy bars of alloy, shiny, round.

 

 

It is the time for glowing steel and prayers.

A dragon’s breath comes flaming from the hearth,

exhaling poisons in sulphurous flares.

We lay the billet in its burning bath

until with cheerful red it glows but not

that brilliant lustre with which iron burns,

consuming it to dust in fire too hot.

The bellows moderates, the colour turns.

Red-hot from hearth it crinkles empty air.

It eats all flesh and so we dread its touch,

however leather-skinned, and yet we dare

to hold and carry it with iron clutch.

Unto its sister where the hammer swings,

the billet flattens and the anvil sings.

Unyielding mother of the shining sword,

the anvil has a merry tone and clear.

Her warlike rhythms ring out chord by chord

to shape the weapons of the chevalier.

She turns to a harmonious refrain

that pierces to the heights of heaven’s clouds.

Musicians listen, play the theme again,

in far-off cities to delighted crowds.

The billet bends beneath the hammer blows

to sickle shape, a section of a wedge,

the nascent figure that the craftsman knows

will straighten out to form a cutting edge.

We hear the swish of tyres in the rain,

the sough of pebbles on the stormy beach.

The best of steel is quenched in warm champagne

to dull its colour from the cherry-peach.

Unwillingly it takes the curse of Cain

in busy bubbles, clouds of scolding steam,

and hisses sibilant, a viper’s scream

and then it’s sullen, cold and rough of coat,

embrittled as the thinnest champagne glass

but innocent of threat to any throat

and fit for cutting neither flesh nor grass.

 

It’s now reheated, scratched with brick to show

the oxide colours: Oxford blue for blades

that do not break but bend beneath a blow.

Light blue to give the edge that never fades

but there are secrets that cannot be told

of different tempers, using clay and oil,

of shattering to shards, of fold on fold

to forge anew with added sweat and toil. 

Some things are governed by a rule of three:

blade, edge and tang make up the trinity.

 

 

A chisel cuts the red-hot steel like cheese,

with deadly cuttings smoking on the floor.

When cold it has no eagerness to please:

the hardest chisel barely leaves a score.

A grainy whetstone at the waterspout

unpeels the chrysalis. The dragonfly’s

pearlescent wings are eager to be out.

The blade is fixed and polished as it lies

unmoving, inch by inch, in slaveries

of toilsome work with fine and finer stone

till rich striations curl in traceries

to show the sword has patterns of its own.

This is the ending of the swordsmith’s skill:

the naked blade is polished, straight and true.

It is an ornament; not meant to kill,

to whistle in the wind, to stab and hew.

It can escape the gripping hands of guilt,

remain unfitted for the ranks of war,

until it has been furnished with a hilt

and then it’s in state of grace no more.

A sword can never sleep when in the hand;

its cuts run deep; our blood soaks into sand.

 

Slow Boat to China

She’s been ashore, laid up, these thirty years;

uncaulking at the seams, her timbers dry.

There’s mutiny no more, no buccaneers,

no hearts of oak to keep her full and bye.

Blown beam-ends on, upon a stormy sea,

as nevermore to rise, I’ve seen her reel,

down by the stern or head. Then up comes she,

a scrap of sail above a leaden keel.

Time was we heard the distant shanty go

a-warping down the river for the deep,

‘Haul away, we’ll haul away, Joe.’

No change of wind could leave her in the neap.

‘Slow Boat to China’ by the waves baptised.

I see her now. The wind is in my eyes.

My Lady Butterfly

Are you a dark moth from a silk cocoon, 
the flower wanderer of the midnight sky 
who drinks from honeydew beneath the moon? 
Not so, you are my Lady Butterfly. 
When we were straying from our proper course, 
swept all awry by wanton blasts of air 
you fluttered on your wings of subtle force 
to find your flower and alighted there. 
Whatever bloom you choose, whatever field, 
your presence makes its beauty twice as much; 
whatever plant with budding petals sealed 
is glad to open to your gentle touch. 
Ah! Lucky me that you have come to sip 
my nectar and to take it from my lip.

The Art of Poetry

‘Of writing well, be sure, the secret lies 
in wisdom, therefore study to be wise'[1] 
but what is wisdom how can it be got? 
It is not learning; cleverness it's not; 
nor ready wit nor probity nor wealth 
nor gained for sure by cunning nor by stealth; 
the words of children oftentimes have strength 
while many grown-up authors rave at length. 
So, writer, may your works be widely read 
but only if you've weighed what you have said.

Mother

The rose that scents the summer day 
and flaunts her colour to the bees 
knows nothing and has naught to say; 
her only talent is to please. 
With fickle blooms and ready claws 
she wanders where the rough wind blows; 
her children left with hips and haws 
abandoned in the wild hedgerows. 
She leaves themn there without a sigh, 
in swollen, orange bulbs they lie 
but like their mother, by and by, 
they grow to flatter every eye.

Mistress Winter's Jump

Over the stile, the sticks and the stumps 
goes Mrs. Winter over the jumps; 
clearing all the ditches, flooded or dry, 
shot from a longbow and feathered to fly. 
Follow the hound that follows the deer; 
jump every fence and swallow your fear, 
up on a horse that is bred from the blood 
with a clatter, scatter, spatter of mud! 
Over the fence at desperate pace! 
Fie to the fox! It's Winter I chase. 
I'll catch her yet if I get a good start 
but she's up, away, away with my heart.

When she's riding, not dancing.

 Hallo and greetings, knight-at-arms,

all PPE accoutred!

Your presence conjures fresh alarms.

What variant is bruited?

 

What apprehension holds you here,

when deadly foes are ravening?

 ‘The sedge is withered from the lake

and no birds sing.’

 

‘I see pale crowds in multitudes,

with fever moist and blue of lip

they cry, La Belle Dame sans merci

has us in grip.’

 

‘And that is why embattled here

on never-ending trials 

I labour like a Hercules

with viruses and vials.’

 

 

Ships Pass in the Night

I want to sing when love comes to my heart 
but songs of sorrow linger in me still. 
We are at sea on passages apart, 
night-passing once, bathed in a mutual thrill: 
the swell, the wash of wakes, ships' lights ablaze, 
the song of sirens,tables laid for two… 
Our ships continue on their different ways; 
beyond the rim of sea and sky are you. 
The ocean's vast, erratic face is bare. 
The albatross in his incessant flight 
alone can see our kisses floating there, 
where ocean liners lingered in the night 
the roses and the wine flung on the waste, 
a momentary splash, a fleeting taste.

Silent Air

Lord,how I long to snatch 
what swiftly flew away 
and went with all despatch 
despite my plea to stay. 
Scant was the time and space 
the kindly gods have lent 
when I could stroke your face 
to heal my discontent. 
A desert route I see; 
a setting sun behind. 
I know that I am free 
but freedom is not kind. 
I walk without a will. 
I call. The air is still.

Allegory

I found your love was stronger than I thought 
Upon the brink and hesitant to leap 
I dipped a toe and by a current caught 
I tumbled headlong in the rushing deep. 

I learned to float and drift through pleasant dales 
where willows overhang their images 
and listen to the river telling tales 
of castles high and lowly villages. 

I little thought of where a river flows: 
its slow meanders, jagged cataracts 
where over booming falls the water goes 
to die of thirst in dusty, desert tracts 

but over mud and estuary to sea 
which swallows rivers great and small we passed. 
I lost you there, the river ceased to be; 
upon a lonely seashore I was cast.

Japanese Garden

The mistress of the mini-masterpiece 
was fixed upon her purpose of renewal, 
her garden of Japan, her plot of peace, 
her precious gem set in a royal jewel. 
One day we saw her tending plants at Kew. 
‘We should remember this', I think I said. 
So there among the foxgloves and bamboo 
I drew her in acrylics on the shed 
and now she is a memory of you. 
She gardens on when all the flowers are dead. 
I see her toiling there the winter through. 
It's not a fertile spot but some flowers grow. 
She talks to them perhaps. Would it were so.

v

Train passenger

She did not see the endless stands of trees, 
their hollow eyes in shadows by the tracks, 
through once-enchanted regions where the bees 
were sealing clover honey up in wax. 
She did not see the murmuration write 
its fleeting charcoal message on the sky; 
girls diving like kingfishers in the bright, 
reflective river as the train passed by. 
The chapel, listing in eternal rest 
to founder in the soft, decaying earth: 
she did not see. Her thoughts were unexpressed. 
Perhaps she wondered what the world was worth 
while she sat there with neither smile nor frown 
as if a final sun were going down.

Wastes of Wishful thought

Your memory, the flower that I tend, 
my insubstantial relic of desire, 
grows pale despite the time of mind I spend 
to bring alive a remnant of your fire. 
A second's thought, a minute or an hour, 
an age of recall: you are absent still. 
Too much of this has made my mind run sour 
and no philosophy can cure my ill 
for I am lost in wastes of wishful thought 
without a prayer to mend a withered rose. 
The heavy weight of learning comes to naught. 
The world is wearier than I supposed. 
Of glorious Creation who can boast 
it brings us love? It kills what we love most.

Paganini's theme 

It seems to summon demons all around 
with snatches of the devil's private prayers; 
to fill the air with wild, disturbing sound, 
with doctrines dangerous and rebel airs. 
The kick and stamp and dash of heel and toe 
go on until a master stroke, unplanned, 
comes in to soothe the endless welts of woe, 
to put a treasure in the master's hand. 
The eighteenth variation changes all 
as if some jungle balm made from a leaf 
had turned to flowers every cannonball; 
made us forget the price of love is grief; 
put scarlet roses in the armoury; 
turned all our conflicts into harmony.

Night Ambush

Above our heads the night is glorious and  bright. 
Rain has relieved the fever of the day 
and compo rations stay the appetite. 
In all its nakedness the Milky Way 
provokes eternal questions which are quite 
above our heads.

Nothing must give our rendezvous away; 
the chilly stars are all our firelight; 
the music of the spheres our cabaret; 
we are as silent as the comet's flight 
above our heads. 

We are not creatures of the shining day 
but fall from shadows with a hidden might 
on foes unready or in disarray. 
We do not hate though theirs is not our way 
for fighting soldiers share a common plight, 
above their heads. 

We are not shepherds, only wolves at play, 
until we show the power of our bite. 
If angels come to speak they do not stay 
but leave among the noises of the night 
above our heads.

The Strider of Worlds

Where there are only bare and empty fields

he scatters stardust, drenching it with light.

He harrows every plot until it yields

a new creation worthy of his might.

His words are furnaces with fearsome blast

of metals born to bear his hammer stroke.

Niagaras of flashing stars are cast

to swirl in maelstroms where he trailed his cloak.

He walks in empty worlds, by barren seas,

globes clothed in fertile greens or airy blues;

in fragrant forests diligent with bees

where orchids dress up in outrageous hues.

Sometimes he talks with things that grow and thrive

upon these ashes, glad to be alive.

Limericks

Whatever you're writing is prose 
or it's verse; it depends how it flows. 
If it rings like a bell 
then it's music as well 
which is terribly hard to compose.

You must think and then carefully weigh 
every word lest your thoughts go astray. 
‘But', she said with a wink, 
‘I don't know what I think 
till I've seen what I happened to say'. 

A troubled young man said, 'I swear 
there is nothing to breathe, only air 
and to eat: only food 
so I go about nude, 
but for clothes I have nothing to wear'.