Just a Poem

Just a poem. Spotted on the wall of my son's classroom.

It's Lauris Edmond and I've long loved her poems, so how could I not be drawn to it and stopping in front of it, read to the very end? 

I'm as far from this Wellington harbour outlook as you could imagine, but in essence this is me. Traveller and observer.

Discovery

Lauris Edmond

Midnight in the breathing dark,

I walk through the house,

lit from beyond itself by the light

of the city, translucence of

moonlight, white stars asleep

on the harbour water. This is

home, I whisper, amazed. If

anything is mine it is this

luminous gift held out across

the unknowing dark. Last week

I was busy in airports, pursuing

the traveller’s ridiculous industry

of survival, each moment bursting

with trifles like over-stuffed

luggage. In this stillness I neither

lift nor handle, I stand at the window,

weighing nothing, carrying nothing.

I breathe, and the light grows

within me. Home is where your life

holds you in its hand and, when

it is ready, puts you quietly down.

On the days when I wonder where home, is I'll read this and feel quietly reassured. 

Thanks Thomas.