Sheep May Safely Graze by Richard Martin

                    Sheep may safely graze in pastures
                    Where the shepherd keeps his watch.
                    Salomo Franck; J.S. Bach Cantata 208

Avoiding dustbins and parked cars,
I walk down a path between trimmed hedges --
then suddenly I'm out in the countryside;

a mass of woolly balls cover the hillside –
a flock of sheep munch their way round the contours
untroubled by traffic and passers-by.

I think of a grainy photo in the morning paper:
jagged ruins, and in the foreground a ragged boy
with a company of hairy bony goats –

he looks thankful to be unmolested by aerial
or other threats, the sudden whistling of shells,
the harsh inhuman cries of men.

There we stand together that boy and I,
resting on the edge of peace,
of animals safely grazing.



Richard Martin is an English writer who lives in the Netherlands close to the point where Belgium, Germany and Holland meet. After retiring as a university teacher in Germany, he turned his attention to writing, and has published three collections of poetry and numerous poems in magazines in England, the US, and Austria.