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Reflections from Reykjavik
1 Dark into Light (for Jane)
The airbus funnels dumbly through the grey
grey snow, grey sky, the pewter coloured sea
occasional black outcrops of the land
next day is brilliant, and the wind is keen
father and daughter trudging round the streets
as if the gap of years had never been
and houses which were hidden in the murk
flash out like petticoats from inbetween
in red and peppermint and olive green
The landscape doesn’t seek to praise or blame
but all the same
reminds me that some thirty years ago
I said come out, come out into the sun
and out you came
2 Runes for Leaving (for Boo)
The night before we left the snow did fall
Drifting on roofs and smoothing out the ground
a hazy brightness dancing in the air
utterly still: we saw no-one around.
The houses all stood back to watch us go:
our wheels leaving meander tracks behind,
we crunched down Fjólnisvegur in the snow.
A bend disclosed a family below
Mum, Dad, two kids, the small one on a sledge.
The parents bent, the young boy pulling too,
made runner tracks, and footprints up the hill
which met ours coming down. Briefly, we knew,
these runes would stand, so land could tell the sky
where we had been, where they were going to