I studied with and later worked with the incredibly talented Dan Wylie at Rhodes University in Grahamstown/Makhanda (South Africa). Dan is a great person, and has a wonderful sense of humour. He creates the most beautiful imagery in his writing. Here is one of his musings.
In this season
I can’t burn the trash
since a spider has constructed
a vast concentric web across
the mouth of the kiln.
The web, quivering in the wind,
is stitched with droplets of dew
at precise intervals, a geometry
of such clarity and hope it could break your heart.
In this season
I can’t cut the north lawn
since the flycatchers have built
a nest nearby in the plastic head
of the scrap-metal sculpture.
Softer than cat’s fur, the nest
brims with mouths.
Fifteen days until they fledge.
Meanwhile the grasses flourish and swarm,
more complex than galaxies.
In this season
I can’t travel far
since the cat is almost blind now
and cleaves to me like a windblown burr.
Fifteen years, she has been my nest.
Still, now she listens, focused
as a dewdrop, to rustles in the grass:
life ablaze at every level, my heart
at the centre of all the world’s filaments,
breaking and mending, breaking and hoping.
Simply beautiful. What a guy. Thank you.