Beauty of Age
By Kate Noble
Within knot-wheel whorls of
bronze-hued agèd wood cuts
lies that lustrous beauty of long-layered seasons,
which belies smooth-curve carving, and marks now
fibrous strength borne of twisting time threads.
No longer supple fluid-fill stalks,
do with backward grain-ground glancing,
bend foreword-whisper of sage wisdoms
dripped in ear of sapling green-stem vigour
with its youthful vital glow.
Take heed, soft bend-wood so feverish full
with suck-pull energy flowings
long stamped in, lest ‘fore-ground
is too soon lost to crumble-dust before
it can croon its haunt-rich patina song
of unknown pitch with stranger lyric
hum-hailed of newly moulded beauty depths
reformed of time-spun glory, not often heard thus
and making marginal sense until likewise you
join to also mourn its passing.
Kate Noble's creative writing shares time with singing engagements. Her professional life in disability advocacy has led to her keen interest in social justice, women’s issues, mental health and well-being, together with an interest in liminal spiritual and ‘thin' spaces. Read more – waking the mind whilst touching the soul – in The Writer’s Journal, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, The Basilisk Tree, Linked Verse from Laughing Ronin Press, Ballast Journal and The Journal of Undiscovered Poets. She is 58 years of age, living northern England, UK.