CLIVE WILLIAMS

Reflections on life and beauty from Summer 2011

The Osprey by Clive Williams

I see an Osprey above the saltings, loose lazy wings calling itself home
I hear curlews along the mud, slurring their bill curved call rippling with the river
and swallows skim brown water where mullet skulk in silent pools
and I take the offered gifts of joy and life and hope and beauty
and wonder how can this be that all of this is here for me

Who would not breathe all that a rose has to offer in its brief life
or see the tilt of clinging foam touch your lips to leave its cappuccino kiss
or taste the crunch of sweet amaretti beneath the tongue's root
and this is the wonder of small things, as amber teardrops preserve their prey
these gifts live on for ever and a day

I see the moonless night reveal Andromeda
a smudge of dust between the stars
and I dissolve within and am lost in its infinity
as when you move your hair and there I glimpse the starlight by your ear
and watch your smile dazzle the night like sunlight on the sea
I crash and burn again in awe at love and life and all its mystery

Therefore would I wish no more than this
that these ephemeral sparks of joy unknowingly given
be with me when I walk that dark valley or stand at its brink
that within me my heart should miss another beat for love
and we fragments of creation be blown by the winds
in beauty and light until we like the Osprey are called home

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