Carillons over
land and water, the people’s
book, known by heart, tunes,
gaps for all weathers.
I walk straight into them and
through on my way down
to the public space
where the low waves lap and lap
between tall grasses.
Here egrets come to
dance and give voice to desire
as we also would.
The striking and strange image of the carillons creates a soundscape for the reader and the poet in the poem. THeir harmony in the landscape becomes more than his immediate human experience as he encounters the egrets in their strange yet recongisable particularity and his memories of love which they call to mind.