© Peter Haydon 1998. All rights reserved.

The four elements

For JA

She is earth;
Warm and moist and dark.
(Your hands, dug deep into her frank loose depth,
Come up rich and full of life.)

She is fire;
Running deep within the mountain;
Spilling bright passionate words,
Swift-flowing acts reshape landscape
(Black despair falls like fine ash;
But volcanos make most fertile slopes.)

She is air;
The cool voice of the cave flows over
summer flowers sprung sweetly to life.
The teller of tales, inspirer, wind of change,
Friendly breeze that ruffles the hair of a child.

She is water;
Little Jehan runs steaming through the pyre
Unconsumed; she hears
The many and various voices of Goddess
In the clear sanity of cascade;
Soaring through space,
Each drop bright diamond in the sun,
Arcing always
Back to earth.