| Saturday’s Rainbow It happened that I saw it paint itself In light and liquid. Sky Turned into art. Original Cloud-Constables emerged To make new moments when The eye’s in love with wonder. “Go on, then, break my heart,” I dared To the big window as I watched Sudden, shaded radiance declare Its moist lustre, its big phenomena Vivid with wet physics, working together To arch across the Tay and link Tentsmuir to Monifieth Where people walked along the beach At each bright, leaking root of it Straining to hold the curve, driving each hue Beyond the commonplace, towards perfection. Those distant people disappeared in it Or else they found Intimate, legendary treasure on Kaleidoscopic sand. Then it began to break. Its cylinders decayed. It vanished bit by bit – Violet, indigo and blue, Green, yellow, orange and red. If only how we live could be as true In our arrivals and departures as A rainbow comes and goes! … It left its light-print on the conifers, Its seven-coloured, seven-heavened smears; And after seven flourishes, the sky Departed in an optical goodbye. Ferens Gallery, Hull | |
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