teign gorge: where the dance is (poem)

Teign Gorge, Dartmoor, TM's birthday, November 2nd 2016

Where the Dance is

This is the long hour –
Eliot's 'moment in the rose garden'
where you stand with your lover
here in the kingdom of air
bridging heaven and earth
above the autumn waters

this deep gorge
carved with the patience of river
from Dartmoor rock
where the blaze of beech and hazel
sparks the whole valley, the river
into long flame 
that sears your retina
and hollows you out 
as it fills the reach 
of river, boulder, tree
where a slow salmon leaps
and slaps back under

and you remember that ancient longing
that tells you
this is where the dance is
this place you will never leave

– even as you turn away west
and walk back through the meadows
through the cows to the road, the cars
the fading light – 

everything being as it always was
always is
holy




© Roselle Angwin 2016 (poem & photo)