But my poetry reading group spent a night looking at his body of work, including the radio plays, and I have recently written a sort of response to his poem "April Rise",a thank-you rather for the poem. It's too late for it to go anywhere as the year is heading speedily towards its end so I'll post it on this blog instead.
To Laurie Lee, from Llandudno, with thanks for
his poem “April Rise”
(in honour
of his centenary)
If ever
there were blessing in the air
it’s here,
in this quiet evening light,
moonstone-blue
at horizon’s edge.
It falls
like silk on my tired eye.
The shaven
head of the naked moon
peeps from night
clouds closing in
as one by
one the lights blaze out,
are doubled
in the glaze of sea.
The Orme’s
great hawk-shape spreads its wings,
scoops up the
town in feathered hug;
white gulls
slice a path through air,
brightness fills their wake.
Flocks of
oystercatchers now
darken the
line of salt-flecked sand;
their
wistful piping carries loud,
like
blessing in the night.
Round lamps
gild the esplanade,
lacquered
by smatterings of rain.
We look out
at the bay and know
if ever
world were blessed, it’s now.
Gill McEvoy
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