A tall grey world of glare and steel
In opalescent glass –
A pillar of salt lies on a couch
Absorbed in archaeological past
‘If man had wings’ observed a bird
‘Presently he’d be
The far side of his window-pain
Where ‘now aware’ is free as air
And movement’
‘When human beings became
‘Human Resources’
Their song was named a thing apart –
They called it ‘a poem’ – this was an omen
Of holeness where there was wholeness
The Tower of Babel become a plain
Of open-plan office bullying’
‘The river of time runs by
Why try to couch in it?
There is no foothold on the river bed –
Sit and listen instead’
.
Bernard Saint
Illustration: Claire Palmer
.