Is

By Peter Bloch-Hansen

Just when the evening turns to night –

There is a word the wise ones say

It speaks itself when all the birds

Have sung away the last of day

Sung the breezes to their sleep

And sung the starlight near and deep

Just when tomorrow, stirring sweetly

Stretches in her ready womb

Then, then

Sleepy children end their play

Wondering what their dreams will be

And, then, then, so ready for sleep,

Find innocent dreams, beyond deep.

Fathers and mothers kiss their eyes

And wonder, in a sweet surmising

What they’ll do and what they’ll say

With the sun’s so early rising.

The word for that, the wise ones say

From the beginning and past all ends

Touching the bottomless tops of things

Shining with invisible wings

Silently speaks itself.

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Peter has written poems since Grade Four, experimenting with forms and genres, discovering his voice. He’s published a little here and there, though last year he had two poems published in the Railway City Writes anthology and one of his poems has just been accepted for the Reality Detonates anthology. Until recently though, he’s concentrated on sharing work privately with friends and in numerous public readings: he’s been a featured reader at the Art Bar in Toronto, at a Poetry Month event in ST Thomas, Ontario and at a reading honoring Canadian poet, Colleen Thibaudeau.

He’s written a verse play called A Star Fell last Night, which incorporates music and dance: he is looking for a composer/collaborator for that and he’s working on a book of children’s poems.