"Small Black Rose" by David Hay

The beauty of your peace,

makes the boarders

of the horizon

recede into nothingness,

and the mind crippled

by its own weight

is released

into a deepening

reverence with the stars

made holy by a grief

all too human.

The evening with its melody

sweet and tortuous

swallows the burgeoning self

and with fitful transcendence

illuminates the worm besieged heart,

voiceless and numb.

Despair is alleviated by the steady

current of your voice that carries

birds and translucent clouds

into the growing web of night,

that heeds not boarder

nor recognises name.

Let senses be dumb,

let eternity subdue

with drops of quietness

upon our brows.

Let death be accepted;

nurtured from the beginning

and all our finite moments

free from history’s engravings

be glorified.

David Hay is an English Teacher in the Northwest of England. He has written poetry and prose since the age of 18 when he discovered Virginia Woolf's The Waves and the poetry of John Keats. These and other artists encouraged him to seek his own poetic voice. He has currently been accepted for publication in Dreich, Abridged, Acumen, The Honest Ulsterman, The Dawntreader, Versification, The Babel Tower Notice Board, The Stone of Madness Press, The Fortnightly Review, The Lake, Selcouth Station, GreenInk Poetry, Dodging the Rain, Seventh Quarry and Expat-Press. His debut publication is the Brexit-inspired prose-poem Doctor Lazarus published by Alien Buddha Press 2021.