A Fierce Green Place

A poem is a power

for Rethabile Masilo

A poem is a power. Invoke it and run the devil

Watch it good . . . See traces of the first word on it still. 

Numinous, it will eclipse the moon, call up mists,

halt the sun in high heaven. Listen . . . Hear it tell 

sounds we make with our mouth when we propose, 

with our hip when we dispose. So use a poem loud

for laughter, as a sigh after ecstasy, time and again

for praise. Set it like balm between you and bad mind 

with your neighbour. Cause it to gather all who take

a knee for justice, all who genuflect in prayer, all who 

bow to murder. Blood bled to born, bloodshed to die. 

All this in a poem is not too great a weight.