Iceland revisited (for Basil and Susan Boothby) Encounter July 1964
* * *
Unwashed, unshat,
He was whisked from the plane
To a lunch in his honour.
* * *
He hears a 1oud-speaker
Call him wen known,
But knows himself no better.
* * *
The desolate fjord
Denied the possibility
Of many gods.
* * *
Twenty-eight years ago
Three slept well here.
Now one is married, one dead,
Where the harmonium stood
A radio:¬
Have the Fittest survived?
* * *
Unable to speak Icelandic,
He helped instead
To do the dishes.
* * *
The bondi's sheep-dog
and the visitor from New York
Conversed freely.
* * *
Snow had camouflaged
The pool of liquid manure:
The town-mouse fell in.
* * *
A blizzard. A bare room.
Thoughts of the past.
He forgot to wind his watch.
* * *
The gale howled over lava. Suddenly,
In the storm's eye,
A dark speck,
Perseus in an air-taxi,
Come to snatch
Shivering Andromeda
Out of the wilderness
And bring her back
To hot baths, cocktails, habits.
* * *
Once more
A child's dream verified
The magical light beyond Hekla.
* * *
Fortunate island,
Where all men are equal
But not vulgar-not yet.
