‘the tongue is the spine’s first leaf’
……………………….– John Berger
If what you say is true –
and it must be
for whenever I repeat it
to myself
I grow taller,
taste rising sap –
then grief,
that sour clench
in my stomach
at the news
of the loss of your voice,
is the burl of the torso:
a barked knot
of wild grain
that warps the birthing ring
of this new year –
but worked
by careful hand
may convert a canker
into our re-enchanted Earth;
and left to age
give courage girth.
Naomi Foyle
Jan 2 2016
.