KINGFISHER

Sitting under the shade of alder trees
A sense of stillness and silence out of the Sun

Though a breeze is rustling the leaves above
And the ripple of the flow of water over stones

Tells of movement and fills the place with sound:
Eleri sings a soothing song as she rushes on.

Then, against the flow, the whirr of a bird
Flashing past over the river, flying upstream

And following it with my eyes I caught
In a patch of sunlight – a gleam

Of electric blue – then blinked it away
Back into the shade and round the bend

Of the river. Still she sang
Rushing on to the sea, Eleri,

Bringing back a stillness and a silence
Out of the tumble of water over the stony bed.

I sat and added to my store of treasure
A blue jewel flashing in dappled shade.

None of it is mine, though I hoard it all
In the nest of memory Time has lent me.