AN ORDINARY DECEMBER NIGHT

Two Christmas poems, the first a sonnet to camera in tribute to my mother:

And:

A Night Before Christmas

(17 December 2017)

Waking in the small hours
No hope of heavenly hosts amongst the empty galaxies
But on this spec – this spinning ball – our world –
My iPhone, balanced on the bedside table,
Brings tidings of great joy

We lie in the dark
And listen to the BBC World Service
Two stories of loving human heroism
Bless the night

No interventions from on high
Confuse the cosmic carry-on
Black holes continue to collide
Dark Matter mystifies – its gravitas,
We suppose,
Holds things together.

Down here tectonic plates shift.
Our DNA
Encodes our fight and flight.

Sex is not circumvented
To form the apex of The Purpose
Yon star cannot lead the wise.

Will we live long enough to find
The cosmos must be cruel to be kind?
Meanwhile there’s real cruelty on earth
We carol of a stable and a virgin birth

But from my iPhone, my debit card securely in its case,
The BBC, despite bad tidings of the human race,
Pierces this night;
News of man and womankind’s amazing grace.

A very happy and peaceful Christmas to you all!