The property of stones

The following poem is about the history of my own country of Wales and my own family but it is inspired, if that is the right word, by the deteriorating political situation in Hungary (see George Szirtes' blog). I offer it as encouragement and support to oppressed and subjugated peoples wherever they are.

regarding

the ancient wisdom

of the people

they knew the swim of the salmon

and the swim of the stars

and they knew the power

in the songs of the stones

as in a summer

of mysterious lights

and mysterious sights

and they could tell you

these people

why the stones

would sing

and they could tell you

these people

many another thing

before the time

of the coming

of the crazy people

with their contrary proofs

and their many damnations

as is known to happen

from time to time

and from place to place

in the world

a crazy people

who didn't believe

all the superstitious nonsense

as they called it

a crazy people with too many books

in which someone had written

that everything anyone thought they knew

must be false

and wrong

and evil

and wicked

and a stumbling stone

on the way to redemption

a crazy people come to knock

them

down

as they always had done

everywhere else

before

but somehow

this time

a

number

held hard to the faith

to the stones

and to the power of the stones

and so it was

that they grew

relentless

and stubborn

just as the stones

that grow

in the fields

gw2011/