The debilitating need to understand

Just rediscovered this one, so I’ll lift it to the top of the pile as a reminder for myself. It fits in with run of my thoughts this evening. Memories of a trip I made some years ago now,…

Aberbach

This afternoon I walked to Aberbach,
With summer hung about me,
In the deep lanes,
Sluggish with a heavy green,
All slick and dripping with a warm drizzle.

My mind felt dull,
Unwilling to engage the world,
Or even less to wrest dim meaning,
From the mystery of its shadow places.
Instead I sought only silence,
Somewhere to float a while,
In the silken luxury of nothingness,

This lonely bay,
Where solitude availed itself
On a wet Monday afternoon,
Granted me a wordless sympathy.
And in the rhythm of the sea,
Washing upon the shingle shore,
I entered a realm of complete detachment.

Great tide lined cliffs,
Weather worn, meadow topped,
And pathways zig zagging,
To blue-grey streaks of sky,
Formed the bowl in which I sat,
Snug while the summer rain dripped
From the brim of my hat

There were no thoughts,
No wisdoms written,
In the code of ages here,
But something of greater value:
Brief sanctuary, and freedom,
From the debilitating need,
To understand.

Aberbach
Dyfed