The Crossing
There is a secret spot
in every town and city –
step in the right place
at the right time and pace
and the world disappears
as if it had never been
anything more substantial
than a passing miracle.
Listen carefully to your body’s
atoms, hear every hidden
note of music, the rhythm
of invisible vibrations
singing through you
as freely as ice softening
to water, a river flowing
oceanwards with the wind’s
footsteps quietened to
a single breath, suspended
like a chiming wish.
Leafless trees whisper,
hollowed now to boats
for commerce’s ferrymen.
On their daily to and fro,
parcels of passing people.
A leaf, a wish, a breath.
An ocean, a river, a song.
A pause, a peace, a place
where sweetness lingers
long after each atom’s
moved on. Step into the right
space at the right time
and pace – and find
the other side is just a dream,
a thought
slowly disappearing.
Sarah James/Leavesley is a prize-winning poet, fiction writer, journalist and photographer, whose poetry films have been screened at festivals including StAnza (Scotland’s International Poetry Festival), the International Poetryfilm Festival of Thuringia and the Big Picture Festival. Website: www.sarah-james.co.uk. Instagram: @s.a.leavesley.