This is just to say…peace to all today on international peace day and every day

 

When They Sleep      by Rolf Jacobsen (English version by Robert Hedin) All people are children when they sleep. there’s no war in them then. They open their hands and breathe in that quiet rhythm heaven has given them. They pucker their lips like small children and open their hands halfway, soldiers and statesmen, servants and masters. The stars stand guard and a haze veils the sky, a few hours when no one will do anybody harm. If only we could speak to one another then when our hearts are half-open flowers. Words like golden bees would drift in. — God, teach me the language of sleep.

photo Rose Cook

 

Thanks to summer

 

Holiday Tuesday

 

 

Thanks for this day, which woke with sun

and rabbits in the field,

thanks for sleep and toast, surf spray, sandy towels,

children running to the sea light-footed,

my family playing in the waves,

all the people loving a wide beach,

the space, warm air,

our baby asleep in the shade.

Thanks for her hand, clenched,

for apples, pitta bread, juicy tomatoes.

Thanks for stones and shells, rock-pools,

blue umbrellas, buckets, joy.

The sand martins fly into their holes,

a plane tugs a banner along the sky.

It should say: Thanks for it all. Thanks.

 

poem and photo Rose Cook