Latest works, 2026 ~ Rough Places Plain, Sonnets and other closed forms, Poetry list
Sonnet of sacrifice ~ 2
Walls of blood and lumps of entrails raw,
The invert mountain hanging close and low
Where God instructs a death in horror’s awe
Before the knife is stayed from father’s blow.
The call of sacrifice runs long and deep
To expiate the darkness facing all;
This blackness beckons – all time and matter reap –
Its presence real in holding us in thrall.
By contrast, light reflected changes every view and sight:
The sky below, the ground above our feet,
Our ordered world remade in visions bright
To challenge all as myst’ries cost we meet.
Short life is here displaced in wonder’s clue
This world is open to a view more true.
Written after a visit to the Anish Kapoor exhibition
at the Hayward Gallery
© Neil Thompson 2026