John Montague: "A Slow Exactness"

A BRIGHT DAY

for John MacGahern

At times I see it, present
       As a bright day, or a hill,
The only way of saying something
      Luminously as possible.

Not the accumulated richness
      Of an old historical language --
That musk-deep odour!
      But a slow exactness

Which recreates experience
      By ritualizing its details --
Pale web of curtain, width
      Of deal table, till all

Takes on a witch-bright glow
      And even the clock on the mantel
Moves its hands in a fierce delight
      Of so, and so, and so.

--John Montague