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5th January, 2024

Friday Poem – ‘Reaches of Light’ by Sheenagh Pugh

Photo of a stunning orange sunset in winter

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘Reaches of Light’ by Sheenagh Pugh from her Selected Poems.

Reaches of light

The old man and his old dog stroll
stiffly, stopping to chat, often
resting. The last light of the sun
wells up: ribbons out like oil

in water. The vast sky is filling
from the west: a bright flood disperses
through winter grey; reflects in his eyes.
He is greeting someone and smiling,

passing on the light; his acts and speech
gentle, as ever. He strokes the dog’s head
absently, like a lover. Gold and red

pale to pastels; rose, mauve, blue; reach

the far shores of greyness, as if there were
channels for colour, as if no edge of sky
could exclude it: a cosmic courtesy
to animate a face, or light a winter.