The Possibility Of Refuge Poem by Keith Shorrocks Johnson

No doubt love was born in attraction and protection.
The attraction of sexuality to ensure procreation
And the necessity of protection for its creations -
The ability to foster the defenceless and needy young
And the partnerships that protect and defend caregivers.

And the age-old pain, chronicled in numberless forms -
Of being apart and being together, of return and farewell,
Of intimations of predation, famine, disease and madness -
Is an inexorable and necessary precursor and condition
Of universal joy, universal sorrow and universal life.

What then of the light of the lode-star, the guiding star
Piercing the immensity of the dark sky and its eternity?
Such stars we know are not fixed but trace out circles
On the celestial sphere aligning, revolving and retreating
Timelessly in our reckoning but also inevitably finite.

The starlight brings us back to what we feel and hear
Touching the clear stream, listening to the necklace
Of songs remade of the spellbound heart, born of affection,
Given life by desire, coition, neediness and sustenance
And the possibility of refuge as the stars endlessly align.