Christopher Hansard:[The Elegy]
the elegy is to be found in the musing before thought
the wind is still before the storm
the tide withdraws before the wave
the heart closes before it stops
the inward breath is held in the belief that it is breathing
in the mists of the future
a child singing with a woman’s voice
tells the story of what was
how a lament
clears a path for
a birth
the elegy is knocking
this child
a midwife
for the new world
the prowling beasts of control and restriction
smell their prey
a hundred years hence
in the rain
a quiet guitar
plays
each string plucking mist
into making
if you look into the music
you can hear your name
listen to the rising wind
observe the incoming tide
watch the land change
look beneath your feet
and claim the earth
the elegy looks for a mouth
democracy is in need of life saving surgey
magic is in the cedars
and the deceivers
in the saintly
and the forgotten
magic is in the music
of the making
in the vibrating
of our nervous system
people seek a new garden of eden
a return to paradise
but they forget
eden was a walled garden
a gated community
a rule bound theocracy
a middle class experiment
of heaven on earth
only when kicked out for bad behaviour
did they learn to love the world
the elegy brings us life
