“Brigid”
A wave flounces over a rock,
folds and settles itself in a
rush of silk.
Soon a corm in earth's womb
will burst
and crack its frozen crust.
On a blue day you feel
the movement towards light,
when a fish pokes above water,
when a hawk,
lean from winter pickings,
broods over holes,
when you look down on matted
leaves
and a sprout pushes through,
when you look out and dive on a
seal's curve,
surface on a swallow's breast.
I stand with you among brown
reeds
on the edge of the lake and
watch two swans,
ice statues until a wing breaks
free.
The Poetry Ireland Review, No. 53 (Summer, 1997), p. 18.
Image: "Can be seen at Ecomare on Texel island in The Netherlands," by Rene Cortin (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons