Do not squander this hiatus
Impatient to return to the broken familiar
Instead
Stand in a cliff-side field at evening
Shinglesong at your back and
Closing your eyes allow the fragrance of wild furze
Catapult you back to childhood summers
The weight of years dropping from your heart
Watch the bluebells bud and bow
Mourning the swift passing of the daffodils
The last light of the sinking sun
Making pylons of the silver birch
Pause by the laurel hedge and marvel
At the intricate lacework of a cobweb
Its near translucent fragility; its dew defying strength
Read aloud a favourite poem and let it’s music dance
Through the open window to join the other invisible notes
That fill the air you breathe, then
Breathe until it dances through you too
Fold your arms about yourself and feel
The absence of human touch burn its loneliness
Down into the deepest part of you
So that never again will you pass an opportunity
For kindness, love, for the life raft that is fellow contact
Don’t waste this precious time decluttering closets
Rather invest in decluttering your heart
Cast out all the broken promises, the dented pride
The harboured hurts and redundant resentments
Make peace; make space; be ready
For all too soon the machine will purr again
Drowning out the birdsong, the poetry
Our focus returning to timetables, schedules
Days hemmed, end to end, in the busyness of being
And we will wish we could have laid a little longer
In this hammock of peace
Stretched between the old world and the new
………….
Deirdre Eustace is an Irish poet and novelist https://www.amazon.co.uk/Finding-Alison-Deirdre-Eustace/dp/1785301071
Wonderful poem.Deirdre’s words just unveiled my options. Many thanks, Frank Holt.
The poem ”Hiatus” is a beautiful whisper to the heart and a timely piece of advice to those burdened by the weight of today’s global predicament. Having read all the Pendemic writings[ including my own] these words are the ones that will sway me down down a more desired route.
Wisdom