Millennium
Naysayers doom-mongered,
saw cards marked in heaven.
Thought themselves star-wise.
Still, my quill didn’t quaver.
I kept to my cell, not to give
time of day to the end times:
God comes when he will.
I sat a sceptic and prayed
age-worn words.
Right
enough I was – even now
no end’s in sight for this orb.
Ælfric knew it: how the sun
can cut out moonlight,
how earth’s shadow turns
a full moon black. He saw
the truth about star-craft:
God made these lamps to light
all that he made forever –
two lamps that fire the flame
in my candle as I write, spit
beeswax onto parchment,
burn down my wick to an end…
Based on De Temporibus Anni by Ælfric of Eynsham
Naysayers doom-mongered,
saw cards marked in heaven.
Thought themselves star-wise.
Still, my quill didn’t quaver.
I kept to my cell, not to give
time of day to the end times:
God comes when he will.
I sat a sceptic and prayed
age-worn words.
Right
enough I was – even now
no end’s in sight for this orb.
Ælfric knew it: how the sun
can cut out moonlight,
how earth’s shadow turns
a full moon black. He saw
the truth about star-craft:
God made these lamps to light
all that he made forever –
two lamps that fire the flame
in my candle as I write, spit
beeswax onto parchment,
burn down my wick to an end…
Based on De Temporibus Anni by Ælfric of Eynsham
