Lay for the Day 2nd January

Publius Ovidius Naso, the poet Ovid, author of the Metamorphoses, died in exile on this day in AD17.

Snakes

She says, When they turn to you
my thoughts rejoice and travel
like the snakes according to legend
holding their tails in their mouths
and rolling like hoops down the hill,
as I go with her among the grass.

John Gibbens, from Simples

The Lay Reader: an archive of the poetic calendar