General
… It was with some shame
that he explained how, in the wood,
he lived on whatever prey he could
capture and kill. She digested this
and then inquired of him what his
costume was in these bizarre
forays. “Lady, werewolves are
completely naked,” was his reply.
She laughed at this (I can’t guess why)
and asked him where he hid his clothes—
to make conversation, I suppose.
all pale beside my lady whose lovely face
and gentle heart show the unworthiness
of him who catches a glimpse of her perfection,
for she is an earthly vessel of heaven's grace
before whose greatness we are so much less,
beyond any redemption.
ciò passa la beltate e la valenza
de la mia donna e 'l su' gentil coraggio,
sì che rasembra vile a chi ciò guarda;
e tanto più d'ogn' altr' ha canoscenza,
quanto lo ciel de la terra è maggio.
A simil di natura ben non tarda.
Weathering // Headlights search and pick out the seamed stone walls / on each side of the island’s narrow road. In Orkney stone, / a crack, a cut and weathered channel, is entry / to the remotest places – vast worlds of howl and murmur / and whistle sounds of storms and secrets / and systems of limitations and faults of love. / Stone is a woman’s fingers on the hand-rail / of an escalator at the Mall, followed / to her hand, to the yearning of her arm, / to eyes that fixed in stare with mine / till I thought her endless limbs would spread across my bed. / But she and I are moving in different directions, / and beyond the tips of her fingers is space, gap, / the gape that populates weathered cracks in stone / with which the wind makes words.
