Rock of ages
Flint flickers
from the cave
an infinity concocted
from inert stone
the dead history
of dry leaves
swept up and cast
onto a futile fire
What outlasts fear
hope
all
is the loving heart
Time is a fix
fixed in time
butterfly beauty
and the truth
hand-held
Time when the eyes
were opened
time when with warm lips
a kiss was taken
Prehistoric juices
drawn from soft berries
dark earth minerals
ochres and umbers
smeared on the walls
desire
for the common good
all ache
soothed by love
all talk an art
every creation
a form of love
Words for effect
verbal markers
set against time’s depredations
beauty undimmed
across the ages
schooled in love
each thought word and deed
beyond season
beyond reason
The hunting hand that held
wild berries
sun-dried and pounded
to a charcoal powder
earth ochres
and the pigment blown
over a hand pressed
to the cave wall
a negative print
Polychromes
in the Great Hall
swathes
of abstract markings
but nothing casual
nothing unpremeditated
nothing unplanned
executed to perfection
a steppe bison
perfectly proportioned
its thunderous heart
still beating
its fiery eyes
peering down at us
across the millennia
horses deer a wild boar
Across the centuries
that are
as dried leaves
in the wind
Time tethered
for all time
art that is life’s signature
the personality that defines
our humanity
our collective singularity
the beauty of truth
and love
life ennobled
From my lips to your ear
what do we know
of poetry
other than it is words
for effect
or words
for special effect
sonnet-shaped
odes to time
the flight of a nightingale
across the ages
undimmed
John Lyons
