Sounds of the Day

'when the air creaked, it was a lapwing seeing us off the premises of its private marsh'

'when the black drums rolled, it was water falling sixty feet into itself'

'when the door scraped shut, it was the end of all the sounds there are'

'You left me beside the quietest fire in the world'

'when you plunge your hand in freezing water, you feel a bangle of ice round your wrist before the whole hand goes numb'

Assisi

'The dwarf with his hands on backwards sat, slumped like a half-filled sack'

'outside the three tiers of churches built in honour of St Francis'

'that would reveal to the illiterate the goodness of God and the suffering of His Son'

'I understood the explanation and the cleverness'

'A rush of tourists, clucking contentedly, fluttered after him as he scattered the grain of the Word'

'the ruined temple outside'

'whose eyes wept pus, whose back was higher than his head'

'or a bird's when it spoke to St Francis'