
Till daylight comes
And so to Deptford to St Paul’s
where death lies buried
in the empty grounds
where fresh-blown roses
are washed in the dew
petals gone as a gust of breath
Here in the broken darkness
the birds fly silently
from oak to ash to sycamore
and strands of light
filter through the dying leaves
Here we remember her hair
her lips and the shape of her smile
the taste of her kiss
the gentleness of her voice
What lies beneath the ground
is love and beauty
held on a threshold
by the water’s edge
ready to be launched
into a new infinity
built of stardust
Smoke and shadows rise up
from neighbouring houses
where bone to bone
young lovers lie
locked in sweet converse
frail dust
frail autumn dust
caught in the swirl of light
Here the dreaming flesh cries out
the deathless voice of all the world :
out of my love
her heart will not stir
These stones to praise thee :
tall and lovely tender she is
a fabrication built of autumn roses
of words that hover
light as leaves in the silence
silks and cashmere
against my aching skin
the warmth of burning coals
the ebb and flow of the river
that carries our days
down to the sea
Search not my lips love
unbind my hands
rise up to my caress
let us stretch our bones
till daylight comes