Queen Catherine of Aragon

Sicut erat in princípio, et nunc, et semper,
I am anointed by God in heaven
As Queen of England,
Daughter of Isabella
And I will not surrender
Caro autem infirma
I hold on to the truth
As you hold on to my jewels
You touch whatever you please
Yet I will forgive you Henry
For you and God
I bow my head,
But I will never yield.

Copyright LJ 2020

Floating Dinner Plates

I watched a water rat

Eat out of curled up leaves 

At the bank of a stream.

They were drifting

Like paper boats

At the end of a race,

But the little rat

Pulled each one close

And peered inside eagerly to see

What it held.

We look for magic everywhere,

While every day

Nature transforms 

Dried, fallen leaves

Into floating dinner plates,

Herself. 

Copyright LJ 2020

Autumn

 

Autumn arrived.
But instead of a woven blanket of acorns and dandelions
That the world prepared to be tucked into,
The ground gave way to the stirring Sun, covered with spices
And the beings crawled out blinking.
They marked the falling of leaves as floating movement,
Saw the shaking trees of the season as awakening -
Nature was not slowing for silence and snow,
It was being noticed -
It was finally being known.

 

 

 

Copyright LJ 2020.

Amusements

(For Jane)

My carousel love ended.
The music stopped.
And in the rain -
I clung on to the sculptured horse
Suddenly with no course
Of my own.

In the dark, the kissing lights
Of other fairground rides
Just beginning
Suddenly seemed brighter,
Hurting my eyes.
I slid off my seat and walked past them slowly,
With my head down.

By the exit someone was throwing candyfloss
Onto the ground
To be eaten by raindrops -

Sadness in a sweeter form. 

It surprised me - 

Amongst these amusements,

I had not expected 
To find another broken heart 

Like my own. 

On the surface

I am the skyline
I can breathe in white clouds
While my skin brushes seaweed
I am the level of the birds
Facing feathered faces
With our legs underwater
I swim through nature's history
The trees will remember me
As they do all the creatures
Learning how to
Bridge the elements
Under their boughs.

Copyright LJ 2020

Animal Stories

I am reading myths in the meadow
In the last of the September sun,
When the tree's shadow crawls
Across the clearing
And hovers at my feet.
I rise to go, book closed.
But now is the time
Of the swallow -
I stand still
And water rats and robins appear
So I stay to hear
The animal stories of dusk
Told by the earth itself.

Copyright LJ 2020