Creed

Creed

Daniel Gustafsson

Surely, in times like these,
there’s something to be said for making whole,
some fabric fit for living souls
to find their measure in?
As maples shed vermilion, wind
picks up; the thickets thin

while all along the road
the sorbs turn sour under flailing rods
and poppies’ pale and rattling pods
are sceptres gone to seed.
Go on, for all of this, affirm
the idiotic creed

of warblers, word- and world-
smiths, welding compounds for the commonweal
of all the sundered: beauty heals
the world. Go on, declare
the ancient news: that every leaf
we trample here is heir

to crowns above. The dusk
is seamed with song. Accept this golden string
the hedgerows keep on offering
to us who fray and fall,
leading us on, as love-lore does,
to where the one is all.

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Daniel Gustafsson
Poet & Academic

Daniel has published volumes of poetry in both English and Swedish, most recently Fordings (Marble Poetry, 2020). New poems appear in Trinity House Review, The North American Anglican, and The Brazen Head. Daniel has a PhD in Philosophy and contributes occasionally to scholarship on philosophy, literature and theology. Find him on Twitter at @PoetGustafsson

Photography by Chrissa Giannakoudi