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.
