As lockdown began, I had a very strong sense that it was important not to come to conclusions about what it all meant too soon. The wisdom times of difficulty bring takes time to make itself known.

Busy the sun, the wind, the birds, the spring greening

But my heart’s sound is silence, a dampening

As if under snow

A sadness, a wondering, an echoing of grief

A slow accumulation of things discarded:

Appointments, hurry, drive, ambition

Each, one by one, shrivel, displaying their transience

Leaving their worth questioned.

They sink, pressured and oozing into the dark,

The silence and waiting.

Slowly a new economy is established

A slow ascendance of

The hidden, the basic, the humble

A new warmth is generated

A safe place, a protected place

A place of richness, of interdependence

Of giving and receiving of nutriment

Don’t dig it up too soon

Don’t disperse it and use it yet

Leave it to sit

To ferment,

To release

To relax

To distill

To yield

In it is Life