North Star: A Poem by AE Somerville

For Andrew

I thank the north star for you,
just two words leaping from my mouth,
in twinkling playfulness to see
Love’s clarity, upon the night.

Then striding in its call for home,
I pass where snowdrop heads are bowed,
a pair of them against the grey
both ailing in the city’s smoke.

For all is ragged here but love;
its lighthouse fixed upon the sky,
And I wonder how I found my way,
before the tale of you and I.

I thank the north star for you,
as the train rattles on behind.
Commuters trickle in its wake,
and I’m but one amid the flow.

But you have seen my world within,
warm and soft beneath the hood.
You’ve played upon the beaches there,
You’ve read the stars and crossed the seas,

And somewhere in the void of space,
a touch of worlds became a seal,
and looking outward, hand in hand,
all, at once, was bright and real.

I thank the north star for you,
just two words leaping from my mouth.
Condensing in the frozen air,
they shed the weight of all my tears.

And passing where the snowdrops were,
now trampled under mindless foot,
I wonder where I’ll travel next;
your woodlands, or your reeded fen?

For all is shining there, my love,
Just like the lighthouse in the sky,
And I would rest forevermore,
within the fold of you and I.

© A poem by AE Somerville, January 2024