We sit, side by side, in the Lady of the lake
\nAs she steams her way across the waters
\nUnruffled by the brisk breeze
\nThat springs up whenever clouds cover the sun.
\nOur position is sheltered, and the roll of the boat is calming
\nSo that a deep tranquility pervades our state of mind
\nLeaving us content as we let the past and future
\nMerge into the ever burgeoning present.
\nMinds adrift, senses relaxed and succumbed to passivity
\nWith the unaccustomed hills around us,
\nAnd the sloping sky lines above the dense woods
\nClustering at the water’s edge.
\nWe are close but wordless in our mutual contentment,
\nTwin souls who have walked the World together,
\nPaced it, side by side, across many foreign lands;
\nWho can tell us anything about ourselves?
\nWe can only live life in the knowledge
\nThat its purpose will forever be concealed from us.
\nWe live lives that test both the edge
\nOf the possible and the frontier of improvidence
\nSo that, as we try to describe what we think
\nIt is already slipping away to demonstrate
\nAnother aspect of itself.
\nBecause history is not a fixed thing,
\nIt is more variable than the future ever can be
\nUntil, that is, it becomes the changeable past.
\nThe uncovered sun is now warm on us
\nHaving cleared the shadows with a sweeping gesture
\nAcross the land-locked water and encircling hills,
\nSo that the small steamer butts her way
\nInto a silver, speckled galaxy of rippling light
\nAnd away on the bankside can be seen
\nA cornucopia of wild flowers.<\/p>\n
July 1998<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We sit, side by side, in the Lady of the lake As she steams her way across the waters Unruffled by the brisk breeze That springs up whenever clouds cover the sun. Our position is sheltered, and the roll of … Continue reading