Three Lines of a Poem

With appreciation to Martin Challis, who gave me a collection of his poems when I was in Australia a few years back. Though I don’t know Martin well, I feel like I knew him quickly through his grounded ways. And through his invitation to light, seeing, and home.

Three Lines of a Poem
Martin Challis

the first line of a poem is a window,
to let the light in, across the sill,
though each imperfect pane swirls in the glass
amend perception and to look within
alters the view

the second line of a poem enters further
into a room, many rooms
where light diffuses as it passes down a corridor, touches patchwork,
to thread the edges of fabric, of lived in textures and in so touching,
opens the way of seeing

the third line of a poem makes a home
for the heart to take up residence,
to visit where spaces and shapes partly familiar,
alive at the peripheral, are eagerly awaiting your arrival
and for your recognition of that something,
you have always known