Poem by NEIL POWELL

Listen Whether side-step or ascent gets us there 1 hardly know: the evening’s intransigence may be omen or portent; objects may intrude, and no carefully prepared defence

can protect us from them yet. The river-mist will glisten outside in the headlamps’ gleam; distances we must forget are starred with cats’ eyes. Listen: the beetle nibbles the beam

and a million animals perform their necessary ceremonies around you in the floorboards, ceilings, walls where each has his history. Listen: how can we be true

to our world, to each other? The nervous resolute mouse behind the skirting is true to hunger or cold weather and the old warmth of a house. Listen: the barn door swings to

and shrubs tap at the window asking to let the world in. To be encompassed by all these lives and yet not to know where to move, how to begin! Listen: catch me as I fall.