SPRING POEMS FROM ‘CHANGING’ BY RICHARD BERENGARTEN

Botanic Garden

Earth

 You paradisal particle of star

you panoramic green and yellow maze

you mother of particularities

you centre folding in upon yourself

with cloudy blue and grey circumference

unfallen and revolving around fire

you crusted ball of lava balanced on

one invisible axis, indiscernible strings

keeping your modest place, your

rolling pace, as doing nothing, you

revolve and spin – you tabulated Eden

terrible and wonderful and ordinary

you grounder of primordial glory

which you absorb and increase billionfolds

in every-each inseparable moment

you seething and proliferating surface

you forested and river-fed and windblown

time-space of human origins and ends

Spring Wind

 Unfazed by

current swerves

in temperature,

as if unbolted by a

troll from some huge

cave, spring wind

roars down our street

and everything that was

quiet is caught up

in thunder. So

where d’you think

you’re heading

bolstered on this

invisible whish and rush

of insistent air, you

bursting word-shoots

out of silence’s green

and pleasant ground?

Thesaurus

 The pleasures of second-hand shops

on Mill Rd have been mine for 35 years:

Cambridge Resale, where for £29.99, I

bought my sleek fine-tuned ghetto-

blaster, on which I still play obsolete

audio-cassettes; the Salvation Army,

where in 1987 I found a serviceable

suit for ten pounds, wearing which I

later met ambassadors, a president

and a duke; Cornwall’s, from whom

I built a collection of patterned plates

from post-mortem house-clearouts;

And the RSPCA bookshop, where

for peanuts I unearthed half a dozen

dictionaries, by now dog-eared and

finger-marked. These pleasures I

praise and sing. May those who provide

them live in health and joy for ever.

St John’s College with blossom

These poems are from Richard Berengarten’s latest collection, Changing (published by Shearsman Books)