Lay for the Day 9th May

Into the underworld to mark the birth of Dante Alighieri, in Florence, in 1265.

Acheron

A boat stands to on a stream beyond sound
whose coiling waters are quiet as smoke –
a thread that the bobbin of earth unwound.

Beaten by boredom, a few lie aground
and beg to board where, beneath a riven oak,
a boat stands to on a stream beyond sound

and the great have cut with their fares outbound,
with a berth there booked they shall not revoke,
a thread that the bobbin of earth unwound.

When you and I beneath a single mound
have come to the place where time has no stroke,
a boat stands to on a stream beyond sound,

and the mud bank is strewn and further browned
with leaves that broke from the bay-crowned who spoke
a thread that the bobbin of earth unwound,

may we linger a moment, turning round
to share a word, recall when last we woke.
A boat stands to on a stream beyond sound,
a thread that the bobbin of earth unwound.

John Gibbens, from Ballads, Two

The Lay Reader: an archive of the poetic calendar