Hold the valley

Hold the valley inside you

Awash between your bits, strobed by memories flowing

Hold the fragrance of orange mandarin honeysuckle and red ripe strawberries

     The gently-piercing buzz of clay-coloured sparrows

          drawing attention to the trembling air

For the dark winter

Hold the smell of wet, fresh, early-winter snow

          Ozone mixed with seeped iron

     The sparkle of cold snowflakes

     The muffled world-sounds after a heavy snow

          Together alone, this city

For the hot summer

Hold the bright mountain storms of high clouds and fine rain

For blinding August afternoons

Hold the comforting cup of Steeples and Fisher

     Nigh and Teepee and Lakit, and Bootleg

     and Puddingburn

For thick forest and other places

Of the valley and clay grasslands

For, whenever hidden, to call forth, to bide
In dusk and dawn and mid, and other vicinities

Hold these always