Reflections

(For Rolf on his 60th. Birthday)

I grow old thinking in pools                                       
slow refractions of the past 
Narcissus-like 
cursed by Nemesis for pride
haunted by Echo                                           Ovid, Metamorphosises
like an old song
that wont stop going round
and round in my head
Tall and tan                                                    Boy from Ipanema
 and young and handsome
Ahh! when he walks 
to the sea

Dreaming how Lorca sees
the moon
in the water with a fish                            Vals en las Ramas, Poet in NY
Por la luna nadaba un pez
like a round swan
in the river                                                    Bodas de Sangre
Cisne redondo en el  río
like a samba
that swings so cool
sways so gentle

Only when the light is right                      In Ennerdale (Hegarty)
in Ennerdale at evening 
does the lake change becoming refractive,
slowly taking hold grasping the image
the mountains woods and sky
Oh! yes I would give my heart gladly
 
It's not easy to see
our image in a pool
Caravaggio makes it like glass
Ovid's is silver and shining 
 
Oh but I watch him so sadly
his sighs oh his sighs! 
they echo from afar
Come out, come out
whoever you are

Thom Gunn thinks of Ovid too                  Gunn: The Menace
sees his own image in the wet
windows of a store front 

it leaps from the night at him
The Menace
in helmet and shades
or a romantic in a leather bar
the song goes round
and round in my head
I smile but he doesn't see

I am moved by fancies that are curled
Around these images, and cling:                        T.S. Eliot: Preludes

What are the images that cling?
father mother dead friends
missed opportunities
a recreation of dead things

images that cling
oh! let’s sing!
 
there's a starman waiting in the sky                       David Bowie: Starman
he'd like to come and meet us
but...

the old song goes round 
and round in my head
arms over head I lie
in a Yogic stretch
make a starman pose 
he's waiting in the sky
can you see his light?
 
If we can sparkle he may land tonight