Can you see the sky?
Running rich-red and burning
alight. The eternal beam
flame-flickers around the turbines’
charcoal-lined edges -
melting and standing firm.
The forth-and-flaunting sun
sends its ember spotlight,
catching the bowed grass
and gold-fastened gate.
I wish I could show you the sky.
The trees shudder ablaze,
radiating and transfigured,
shimmer-shook with infinite promise,
whispering ‘I am here’.
Lured and led,
red-bathed and aglow,
I smile, full of longing.
A tribute to Gerard Manley Hopkins,
and for A who couldn’t see the sun setting over St Beuno’s.
Kerryn Penson, 5 July 2022