Three poems by Will Girling on the theme of observation and exploring the power of the mundane to contain a profound idea.

Realisation

In this room is an eternity of time.

Every sound an echo;

All touch an ambivalent memory.

The tongue compares to an original;

What the eye sees is a reconstruction of form.

Can you smell every element combining?

Walking through these opened doors is a mind,

Which has experienced all things before.

Smoking Outside

Nature reaches out to me

And a dozen pairs of shiny eyes

Blissfully acknowledge the figure

Living among them.

They disappear when I blink,

But I hear them still

Through the playful dancing

Of verdant children.

The Aerial Ballet

The dancers assembled in front of me,

Moving effortlessly to the rhythm of the wind

And a song no one else could hear.

I watched them waltz, only to later disappear

Into the void from which they came.

Clapping maracas seemed to disperse them;

I knew that soon I’d be departing too.

Before leaving, two stragglers approached me,

Encouraging me to join the twilight of revelry.

I let them caress and comfort me,

But I would not be swayed from my flight.

They wordlessly left me in peace to contemplate their joy

And, as the moon was escorted from the sky,

Birdsong filled the cold morning air.

I saw the couple in the distance maintaining their aerial ballet;

Why they were dancing and for whom,

To this day, I cannot imagine.