Becoming

Though the sun is hazy, the sea and sky pale
this is how people become beautiful
 
each seen single against the wide space of light
 
a hip-angling girl skittering into waves
 
the wheeling, epic arms of the swimmer
 
a pair splashing their glittering flirtation at all the world
 
a soft folded toddler busy at the froth
 
how people become beautiful
rounding into themselves, bare, perfect
 
the old ones, balancing waist deep in the fullness of water,
standing in respect, or waiting
 
and light unfurling, over and over, along the sea’s edge.
 

Caroline Natzler

in collection Fold, 2014, Hearing Eye,
ISBN 978-1-905082-72-8

 
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Release

Yet we are jointed into the world
a part of its weight
 
always something touching
 
write against the assault of experience
lift it out of the brute minute-to-minute
 
as if the words could reach
a finer place and redeem
 
though it’s only people who read
– people on their own hard ground
 
it’s only something said
across a neighbour’s fence.
 

Caroline Natzler

in collection Only, 2015, Grenadine Press,
ISBN 978-0-9532537-1-5

 
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Golden Age

Homes with windows facing full
into evening sun
 
look quietly blessed
replete in antique light
 
those who live there
not lost and recovered
 
open and shut their windows
or shade them with blinds
 
may look over an indifferent field
with scraps of cloth tearing on the wire fence
 
caught there by the wind, or tenderly tied.
 

Caroline Natzler

in collection Fold, 2014, Hearing Eye,
ISBN 978-1-905082-72-8

 
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Love

I don’t know what to do with all this happiness
– the old Danger notice all festooned with ribbons and flowers –
I don’t know what to do, I’m so happy
I want to throw you up in the air, high, high
out of sight
and where you land I’ll build a chapel.
 

Caroline Natzler

in collection Smart Dust, 2009, Grenadine Press,
ISBN 978-0-9532537-0-8

 
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