The sun used to shine while we two walked
Slowly together, paused and started
Again, and sometimes mused, sometimes talked
As either pleased, and cheerfully parted

Each night. We never disagreed
Which gate to rest on. The to be
And the late past we gave small heed.
We turned from men or poetry

To rumours of the war remote
Only till both stood disinclined
For aught but the yellow flavorous coat
Of an apple wasps had undermined:

Or a sentry of dark betonies,
The stateliest of small flowers on earth,
At the forest verge: or crocuses
Pale purple as if they had their birth

In sunless Hades fields. The war
Came back to mind with the moonrise
Which soldiers in the east afar
Beheld then. Nevertheless, our eyes

Could as well imagine the Crusades
Or Caesar's battles. Everything
To faintness like those rumours fades ­
Like the brook's water glittering

Under the moonlight ­ like those walks
Now ­ like us two that took them, and
The fallen apples, all the talks
And silences ­ like memory's sand

When the tide covers it late or soon,
And other men through other flowers
In those fields under the same moon
Go talking and have easy hours.

From Field Days, an anthology of poetry chosen by Angela King and Susan Clifford. Published by Green Books in the UK, £9.95. ISBN 1 870098 97 8

Field Days is one of three poetry anthologies from Common Ground, the others are The River's Voice and Trees Be Company. They are available as a boxed set: contact us for more information: email info [at] commonground.org.uk.