angle

angle

to get the angle under the glimmer, image fished by the fabulous Weathercats

walking the
shell looking
under the glimmer
of full tide
crouch to get the
angle just right for
the flash of sprat
whitebait at times
that come like cloud
on a clear horizon
just under the glimmer
of surface those shapes
of mystery that
edge and brush
at your eye

bucklands beach
june 2015

Copyright © 2021 Peter Le Baige. All Rights Reserved

The music, performed by Jeroen van Veen, is from the opening of the second movement (Largo) of Sonatine No. 2 by Arvo Pärt.  It was written during his first year as a student at Tallinn Conservatory in Estonia. 

greasy fly

greasy fly

The hedge still there, I expect the letter long ago came to light.

it was that childhood
Houdini act, when all
hope lost i took
the teacher’s letter
and stuffed it into
the hedge after
stepping off the
bottom step
of the bus.

the whole thing
came later back to
haunt me, spurred
in endless summer
of clouds like yachts
in aerial races and
blue morning tides,
by a fly that bit the
corner of my mouth
one afternoon

overstepping the
night into dream,
the greedy fly
of guilt, the winged
greasy fly,

birthday promise

birthday promise

Fire-walking, cloud-walking, sea-walking dream…

I.
a wilderness
of rose
catches
the nor’westerly
over the
arch.
wire
shrivelled
amongst root.
thorn
hardens against
the summer,
evermindful
the cold.

II.
clouds beached
upon
the
evening.
you camp amidst
the dull surround
of dream –
cloud-walking,
fire-walking,
wavelets muffled
beneath your toes
sea-walking
dream: petal
of your heart’s
wild gravity.
divine the
dawn afresh.
a remnant moon
bleached coral
above the west.