Lay for the Day 7th January

The anniversary of the first transatlantic telephone conversation, between New York and London, in 1927.

from Stories from the Heart

When you phoned me last night from some deep dreaming
your voice nearly took me off my feet
right then and there, standing
barefoot on the floorboards in the empty light.

Though you were miles across the midnight sea
I dreamed and I believed and saw
two people kissing tenderly
somewhere dark and electronic,
between the buzzing cables under ocean.

John Gibbens
from Makings ’77-’83

The Lay Reader: an archive of the poetic calendar