MAN OF IRON

The quietitude of earth's innards

rendered by elemental fire,

indomitable;

Behold him in his forge at work,

his bellows waking the coals into living flame:

the rhythmic thumping of hammer,

 to Beethoven’s soaring harmonies 

whilst sunbeams shaft

through fire and smoke

 - the precision and strength  

of his primordial craft and patient, individual skill -

down a wibbly Devonian lane:

chickens toddling around the orchard,

with rusting ploughs, tractor parts 

and anomalous bits an’ bobs protruding

 among nettles and apple blossom.

Sounds and senses so archaic and ineffable

in every-homely-day.