Love Song for Meg

 

It was the way
the sun came sidling
through the branches –
points of light
exploding into stars
as the wind,
eddying overhead,
delicately sprung
the leaves apart.
I remember most
your eyes and then
your silence.
Light’s undertow,
backwash of green
from the dull silver
of decaying trees.
It was the way
your green eyes
widened and burned black.
Black and gold
sang the leaves,
the water rose
in the secret pool
where all afternoon
I tickled trout –
rose gently
and carried us away
in summer sleep.

from Collected Poems 1947-1981 (Alister Taylor, 1981), © Alistair Te Ariki Campbell 1981, used by permission of the author. Recording from the Waiata New Zealand Poetry Sound Archive 1974.

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