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 without sound
whose coiling waters are shadowy smoke
like a thread from earth’s bobbin unwound.

Beaten by boredom, a few lie aground
and plead to board where, beneath a riven oak,
a boat stands to on a stream without sound,

and the fair and the great in lines are bound
for a passage and berth they shan’t revoke,
like a thread from earth’s bobbin unwound.

When you and I beneath a single mound
are come to the place where time has no stroke,
a boat stands to on a stream without sound,

and the misty bank is littered with browned,
curled leaves, the fallen crowns of ones who spoke
like a thread from earth’s bobbin unwound.

may we linger a moment, turning round
to share a word, recall when last we woke,
before the morning of this darkness broke.
A boat stands to on a stream without sound
like a thread from earth’s bobbin unwound.

John Gibbens, from Ballads, Two

The Lay Reader: an archive of the poetic calendar