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16th February, 2024

Friday Poem – ‘Finding a Fossil’ by John Ormond

Close up photograph of a fossilised fern

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Finding a Fossil’ by John Ormond from his Collected Poems. We’re holding a special event at the Glyn Vivian Gallery in Swansea at 1pm on Saturday 9th March to celebrate John Ormond’s centenary. Keep an eye out for more details about tickets going on sale next week.

Finding a Fossil
Maidenhair fern in flint;
An ancient accident
Show's me time's imprint
A leaf preserved and pressed
Between leaves of stone; crossed
Rest and unrest
An image that grew green
Took ground in the rock grain:
Dark; now light again.
Luck interlaced each line
And dying vein with stone
They return to the same sun.
The casual life of fronds,
Air and the tongues of friends;
Green begins, grey ends;
Except that remembered shapes
Live, and that at one's lips
Love speaks as loves lapse.
Graftings (so fused in chance
Among cold stars that dance
Gestures of permanence)
Persist and contrive to invent
From fragment and element
A mindful firmament.