The White Horse Visits Wayland’s Smithy

The White Horse Visits Wayland’s Smithy, a photo by Giles C. Watson on Flickr.

The White Horse Visits Wayland’s Smithy
The White Horse Visits Wayland’s Smithy

There was a smattering of asteroids and mist.
Chalk hills were indistinguishable from clouds:
Both had their ramparts, curves, flutes and coombes,
Gallops strewn with orchises and stars. The horse
Traversed them both; soil and space were one
To him, tramping the crowns of beech trees,
Clovers, cumulonimbus. He was held aloft
By winds, the hootings of owls, the breath of ravens.
Sheep and sarsens became identical, sleeping
In the fields. There was whinnying above the Smithy,
An uncanny clattering in air, and out of the moth-dank cave
Something came. The anvil rang. Sparks and stars
Were one. The horse shuddered chalk dust, paced,
Grew calm, raised his fetlock for the shoeing.

Poem by Giles Watson, 2012.
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The White Horse Visits... by Giles C. Watson