Halewid

Poem by Steve Day

In a well slept morning sing senses from
the first flush in lush language of birdsong,
the choral chorus greeting the hāliġ(1) hour.
Follow the sky’s creased curves of sunrise,
its night rain pools puddle down the ground.

Sparks spittle fire-pit oven loaves, halewid(2)
wheat crop nourishment fed to strangers.
Give according to their worth our own bare
earth’s plenty, receive in return the Šim’ôn(3).

Quiet, nothing more than the hain(4) haunts
of refuge, deliverance from midnight’s rim.
Turn in glōria(5) to the crucible and the plough

hallowed in rebirth with every living thing.
Bring our palms to one another. Inshallah(6). 

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1 Middle English, ‘holy’
2 Middle English, ‘hallowed’
3 The Hebrew given name, meaning ‘hearing’
4 Scots, ‘enclosed’ or ‘protected’
5 Latin, ‘glory’
6 Arabic, ‘if God wills’

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