the shape changer
______________________________
once I was a deer
stepping under trees
my form always broken
by lights and shadows
then I was a wildcat
leaping up and away
from the traces of my own
rigour and ferocity
in a fold of hills
nodding with flowers
I took on many
shapes and colours
seldom was I present
to myself in a form
half as alluring
as what I might become
again I was a goldcrest
a bright fragment of song
moving through the forest
leading farther in
at times defeated
reduced to stone
I lay disregarded
concealed in the open
then I was a juniper
turning to take the slope
pausing and bracing myself
above a sheer drop
and once I was a dragonfly
for an afternoon
little more than a notion
of the stillness and the green
_______________________
The Threadbare Coat
Selected Poems
Carcanet, UK, 2020
we celebrate our wedding anniversary
today with a dear poetry friend
