Shape

(on contemplating a silver gilt flagon from Durham Cathedral plate)

I look on the still beauty

of this exquisite plate.

Each twist and twirl of a master’s mind

captured,distilled and wrought

to a flagon shape.

Mesmeric symmetry draws my mind’s

diaspora to a homing place.

I, too, am caught, hushed, stilled and shaped

in a single gaze.