Poetry
Spectrum
By Gwyneth Lewis
Look to the dark, it’s full of company,
though dust obscure the birth of a star.
Waiting creates a wider way to see.
Galaxies breathe out their chemistry
in cosmic rays, which our bodies bear.
Look to the dark, it’s full of company.
We’re shipwrecked in a radio sea,
swept by the beams of lighthouse pulsars.
Waiting creates a wider way to see.
The heart obeys its own gravity,
but the eye’s drawn out by light from afar.
Look to the dark, it’s full of company.
The music of what’s killing me
comes, shifted, re-tuned by Doppler.
Waiting creates a wider way to see.
Help me to live this blind energy
until the moment my own death flares.
Look to the dark, it’s full of company.
Waiting creates a wider way to see.
Gwyneth Lewis was appointed Wales’s first National Poet in April 2005. She has published six books of poetry, in Welsh and English. This poem was commissioned by the Dean and Chapter of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, for the Advent Procession 2005.
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