Timeless For An Instant Poem by Michael Maxwell Steer

I noticed the time on her watch, five to three -
the windows drifted off into the forest,
and sun burnt throu their voices into each other -
as she sat in the circle, chanting with the bald guy.

All who witnessed this softening of hearts melted
too, like flakes of cheese under a grill,
hearts permanently united for an instant.

I knew only that she was a mother of three -
small, precise, in charity shop clothes,
hair bright black, voluminous in the sun,
smiling a defenceless invulnerability.

Under any other circumstance
I would have fallen in love I think,
but somehow it wasn't necessary.

When it is our turn together I gaze in her eyes,
bright as marbles, deep as silent pools …
reflecting how impossible it is
to know someone absolutely open.


Findhorn Universal Voices Conference 31/3/04