Helen

Is it by accident we are in love?
You have burnt me through and rested me in showers.
You came to me as homeward comes the dove.

Our sight admits no trespass in a grove
where birds eat crumbs and petals fall from flowers.
Is it by accident we are in love?

The shopsoiled day lacked magic to disprove
its gasp of nothing – till with alien powers
you came to me as homeward comes the dove.

Our stars are circling helplessly above.
We are of the universe and in the hours.
Is it by accident we are in love?

No rough-voiced clown of order could remove
an infant clumsy presence that is ours.
You came to me as homeward comes the dove.

Single we jangled until hand in glove
we flew through sound broke bread and rhymed our towers.
Is it by accident we are in love?
You came to me as homeward comes the dove.

This took a few months to write. As it slowly formed Helen (a fellow-student) knitted me a marvellous woollen jersey of many colours. For a time there was much we were able to exchange but when my degree was over (a year before hers), life took us different ways.