Equinox and sunlit hills

The equinox in fairness with it brings
An equal length to each of night and day.
No preference is given, none received,
And for this while extremes are kept at bay.

No such approach adopts the brazen Sun,
Who now proceeds to fill with warmth each hour
And casts around without restraint his light
Revealing summer's wealth in leaf and flower.

Beneath our wheels the rolling Cotswold hills
Show first a winding lane and then a crown
Of woods atop a summit that now swoops
Towards the vale where nestles Evesham town.

But equinox is calling end to day
And bids us turn at Broadway after tea.
The darkling sky announces autumn's sway,
Bequeathing only twilight time to see.

Mediterranean Odyssey

Great Middle Sea, home of restless wave and fire
Between three continents, whose constant urge
To close together in a rocky vice
And swallow down your content in a gulp,
Will never cease until the time has come
When all the lineaments you own have gone.

What are the the elements that give you shape?
Two basins split by one long leg of land,
Two far peninsulas at either end
And, all around and in between reserved,
The vital bounty of your watery wealth
Whose final confine is the quickened shore
Of Africa, advancing as a wall.

And other walls, great Sea, your shores and
Litorals have borne, indeed, which shaped
Your human past and nurtured in their shelter
Mighty movements round the globe -
Far flung from your abode, and yet your brood -
The walls of cities destined to provide
Each its heritage to humankind.
And now these cities, antique or more new,
Themselves, instead, are turned to cynosure.

The fleets that once upanchored from their gates
To destinations new, in truth unknown,
Have been replaced  by countless pleasure craft
From distant points, carriages of eager
Voyagers, intending now to make their own
Acquaintance on the spot with what they know
Has fashioned in large part their own domains.
And, in this interchange of past and now,
Participants who ventured forth avow
Commitment to the provenance they share,
And carry back a treasured memory
To leaven recollection's waning sway.

Within the shared embrace of culture's trace
The passengers all vary in their state:
Some journey to fulfil a lifetime's dream,
Or to please a partner, or to mend a seam,
While some, a goodly portion, full of hope,
Nurse tender notions of romantic scope.

And, when the cruise ship docks, all such depart
Upon an exploration of the heart.

The scales of life

Upon a bobbing rose a butterfly
Alights. Is she in search of respite from
A raging wind that we esteem a breeze,
Soft airs of summer in a gentle dance?
Or is instead her sole imperative
To launch herself aloft upon the wind
And profit from the widening of her range?

So does the butterfly promote her kind,
Responsive to the vagaries of chance,
And for all other life it is just so -
The cosmic scales condition what may live,
The sizes that will fit the habitat.

Transgressions of established paradigms
Will bring condign perdition in their wake -
But should the habitat become outgrown,
From want of substance or longevity,
The scale must be upgraded to the need,
And life transferred entire to prospects new
Which may entail our most momentous find:
Are we the sole examples of our kind
Or are our equals somewhere to be found,
Elsewhere, elsewhen, extinct or still extant?  

 

Times of grace

When sleep made good its claim I found again
The hill of dreams that first I climbed and topped
When youth was my estate, and childhood past,
And manhood still had not imposed its cares.
What was to come remained as yet unknown,
And no direction ruled by preference.

How slowly flowed the course of ample time,
How quickly moved the pulse from rest to haste!
Years were encompassed in a summer's breadth
And nought was preordained save endless joy.

But then the even tenor was upset,
The fateful choices clamoured to be made,
And what was left of that once timeless space
Were memories recalling times of grace.

The ever-present past

What time we have to spend together now
Calls us to fond remembrance of our past,
Of golden days well burnished by the Sun,
Of languid nights beneath the silver Moon
When skipping breezes, rustling, stirred your hair
And waked our youthful natures to desire,
So gazes turned from heaven to rapt eyes
Where depths of passion welled in mutual trust,
And hearts became entwined in faithful love.