Gloria

I

Here comes
a thing new
It has been before
It will come again
Each time it is new

The dead are buried
deep in their graves
We offer a salute to life

The future is held
in the future
Fortune-tellers do not last

Walk through the door
Attempt the course

II

The year's second month
brings always the snow
deep or shallow
crisp or slushy
even or dispersed

Go forward
Do not stay behind
The future awaits
lies ahead

The affirmative
is correct
Utterance
of the negative
is to be condemned

Life abundant is
Death no more is
She alive is

III

Look
Take heed of the mad
Sanity is insane

Try to do the impossible
and only the possible
is achieved
but even failure
is some achievement


The air is sad
and hard
No knife can cut through

A voice calls
needs must away

IV

Watch the rains beat
upon the ground
making wet
the street beneath

Foul the smell
Foul the smelt
Foul the smeller
But foul
to the foul
is sweet

The passage is blocked
there is no escape

Only the darkness
hides
what the light
reveals
for the darkness
is all around the light
though can not
extinguish it

V

Come Spring
Joyous Spring
Here
for but one season

It will not wait
must journey on
towards Summer
to return
again
after the lapse
of another three

It is close
nearer than you think
at hand
ready to swoop

Hear me
I speak only the truth
I cannot hide the truth
Listen

VI

June is a special month
coming between
May and July
The sixth month of the year

Search
What is it we find?
The one?
The other?

The gentle moon rises
Always it rises
in the late evening
throwing some light
upon the dark

But also prejudges
are served up with chips
on unsalted shoulders
with no vinegar
The axes grind deep

VII

The sun
is shining down
upon the earth
upon the faces
of both the good
and the evil

The beginning
is long past
the ending
not yet in sight
It is the middle of the road
the most treacherous
time of all

The mind blurs
That dazed look
is the inevitable
the price of uncertainty
of groping
of wonder
All new grows old
in the passage of time
But the determining factor
is the rate of ageing

VIII

Away
away from the world
Routine left behind
Not cure —
recuperation

Walk along the shore
Watch the waves
break
upon the rocks
on the sand

My ears ring
I hear a call
which comes to me
from somewhere

Who calls?
I know no-one
But my ears
do not lie
Yet I know
no-one

IX

The leaves fall
from the trees
Autumn
casts a spell
of brown
over a once-green
landscape

There is a short time
only
now
to wait



The wheat
the corn
is collected all in
But the main harvest
is gathered in
unseen
without tell-tale sheaves

A song
a hymn
is raised to heaven
The fields were white
but not quite

X

Return
The holiday is over
Work awaits doing

The Devil waits
with his demons
But is it in Hell?

The corners
hide shadows
dark
menacing
cold
evil

Things are unseen
for sight
cannot penetrate
where is no light

XI

The end is in sight
creeping nearer
every second
And sixty make a minute

Do not put me away
Sanity seems insane
but it is not
so

The bend
has not been turned
The crooked road
runs straight

I am sad
I weep
for myself
I weep
for others
I weep
for my tears

XII

The aged limbs cease
The heavy breathing stops
The pump dries
The lungs collapse
The old man dies

The thighs open
The womb releases its catch
The mouth cries
The eyes see
First earthly morn
No beat is lost
The babe is born

The end
is no end
but a reversal
to the beginning
The old
is made new

Christ was born
that he might die
and impart
the message
that we
must die
in order
to be born

© Gerald England

Composed: Glasgow, 8th August 1966

Publication
1973 New Headland