Lay for the Day29th October

4004 BC: the seventh day of the universe – the first Sabbath – according to the calculation of Archbishop James Ussher (see 23rd October).

From the book of Praises:

99. Of Days

[It was very good]

So came the day all was done;
water revolved from the clouds
through rivers to the ocean,
the earth revolved in the light
that flew straight and unchanging;
the herb unfolded the herb’s
peculiar seed, the bird
unfolded its wings, lions
their limbs and the ewe her lambs.
Man and woman alone knew
enough to stand and wonder:
Things become selves looked across
at self from which things became.
But Saturday didn’t last long.

John Gibbens
from Collected Poems

The Lay Reader: an archive of the poetic calendar