Radiance
You did not see the star
touching your chimney
nor did you feel the moon
touching your shoulder.
You yearned for the shift of the seasons,
expected the change of the clocks,
but not the shift of the colours,
the liquid gold in the air.
You did not see your radiance,
but someone else did,
your grace that carries like scent
before you have spoken a word.
When the sky was blue glass,
when the moon was a sphere,
a hand held up a mirror,
a wind kissed your hair.
Christina Egan ©2021
radiance
As Limpid as the Moon / Alabasterschale
As Limpid as the Moon
Some people are as luminous,
as limpid as the moon:
with truthfulness amidst the lies
or happiness in gloom.
They float and glow across the road
or mesmerise a room;
they never fade, and when they’ve died,
they leave a shining tomb.
Christina Egan © 2016
Alabasterschale
Überm schwarzen Heer der Bäume,
überm grauen Heer der Gräber
ruft durch dunkelblaue Räume
eine Glocke unbeirrt.
Balanciert auf spitzem Pfahle,
schimmert ferne feingeädert
eine Alabasterschale:
fremdes riesiges Gestirn.
Überm schwarzen Heer der Bäume,
blätterlos und blütenträchtig,
überm grauen Heer der Steine
lädt die Glocke zum Gebet.
Überm hingestreckten Tale
steigt gemessen, schlicht und prächtig,
jene Alabasterschale,
bis sich uns das Herz erhebt.
Christina Egan © 2017
As Limpid as the Moon remembers my radiant parents-in-law.
Alabasterschale compares the full moon to a bowl of alabaster; the scene is the vast old Tottenham Cemetery in London. The poem integrates awe before Nature and faith in God (as worshipped in church etc.).
This text will be printed in the Münsterschwarzacher Bildkalender 2019.
Christina Egan 