Let the day live, let the day be
       through you, let the day
gently dictate the course
       of your breath the course
of your fate of your shadow
       of your movements
your decisions, of your thoughts
       and your feelings, let the day be
through the minutes,
       through the hours
without worry, without fuss
       let the day live in all its splendour
in all its glory, let it be your life
       and be roses, be bees and butterflies
and magpies marauding
       and red foxes prowling
and squirrels squirreling
       and willows sighing
sweet memories tugging
       at the strings of your heart

let the north wind and the south wind
       and the east wind infuse your soul
with resolution, let the day live
       in every nook and every cranny
of your being, let nothing whatsoever
       darken your days, neither the sun nor
the moon nor the stars
       Let the day live, let the day be
and let nothing but love
       stand in your way

John Lyons

On Crayford Marshes

Amid the marshes tall pylons stand
           in fields where sheep graze :
adjacent to these pastures
           a field filled with giant bulrushes
more than you could hope to count
           The risk of flooding
has saved the land
           from development

Here is home
           to black-tailed godwit
to snipe and teal and dunlin
           to little grebe and redshanks
to lapwings and herons
           here too proud kingfishers
have established their domain
           and on the banks
of the channels and gulleys
           water voles abound

John Lyons

The hand

The warm
living hand

capable
of shaping

the world
with gesture

action
tenderness

and so change
the course

of history
of love

John Lyons

Renaissance clouds

Against the blue sky

Love in the air

It’s all about perception

The eyes walk further

Than the feet

Not a cloud in the sky

Birds trawling for flies

Summer days that will

Never return

Make the most

No fool like an old fool

It takes a lifetime!