Thought for the Week: Quaker Meeting
'Quaker Meeting' by Richard Stewart
The buddleia spikes, long unpruned,
Surge forward like spear throwers
And the gust wrenches the yew boughs
In which a collared dove is cradled,
Unperturbed. The elements are speaking
In wild discordant tongues, as if
Some Pentecostal spirit is set
To invade the calm of this
Quaker Meeting. From the wild cherry
Blossoms spiral like white butterflies,
Some finding the narrow gap of a high
Open window and then softly,
Oh so softly, fluttering down to
The polished wooden floor.
Here is a silence as of weathered stones.
Only the yellow lamps, high above,
Faintly tremble.
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