This gentle, subtle reflection on a child’s-eye view of an encyclopedia’s exotic secrets is also a vision of a lost world
Italy to Lord
It’s dark in here and forest green: Britannica,
sixteen oak trees in a London living room,
the little girl, my mother, in the bookcase glass.
Italy, Ithaca, Izmail, Japan, each page a mainsail,
turning, HMS Discovery – none of the rivers
of southern Italy is of any great importance.
The jewel is lost in the mud,
and all are seeking for it;
Some look for it in the east,
and some in the west;
some in the water and some amongst stones.
But the servant Kabîr has appraised it at its true value,
and has wrapped it with care
in the end of the mantle of his heart.