Each month, I post one of my best poems exclusively to my poetry patrons in Patreon. Among other benefits (more details here), they get the poem 90 days before I release it to the rest of the world.

Today is blog publication day for my poem, These Times.

When this poem was written, we'd just gone back into severe lockdown here in London and this first poem of this new year tried to capture how I felt about the coronavirus crisis and what it might be trying to say to us.

I hope you enjoy.

---

These Times

“This too shall pass,”

the ancients said

and so it did

but so too did it stay

within the human race

in memories

and sometimes too

in ways 

preserved in the dominions

of law and habit.

And so we’ve come to here,

this surface blur called now,

its depths though

a clear echo. 

Listen. 

Hear.

Earth and seas 

and stars and breeze

still hold out their arms to us

as they send forth

their wake-up calls.

They know what we, 

born of their molecules 

know too. 

Can we plunge into the wound 

find the pearl, 

the question passed on

up to us.

What can we make

and mend

to make amends?

Today is making us

ready for tomorrow.

We have, now,

what we need

for the whole world

to act as one.

 

The time is come.

 

Thank you to my patrons, the reader members who keep me in the writing seat. If you're a patron already, I'm forever grateful and I hope you enjoy your monthly books and bonuses. If you'd like to become a reader member, you can find out how to do that here.