True, this life is not perfect.

There are problems and difficulties

In the body,

In relationships,

In the wider world,

Spiralling into

Apparent madness.

–

But as I sit here

On a train

Watching the countryside streaming

Under a overcast Scottish sky,

I spot a tan and autumn fisherman

Wading in peat-brown fury,

His line arcing for trout or salmon

Or just the chill water, pulling,

And I am brought to the wonder

Of a grey morning

In which our fleeting touch,

Half a moment shy of his hook,

Is sweet with life’s meaning,

And for a second

I feel

It was not a silvery fish,

Taught and tugging,

But I

Vibrating on the end of his line.