Letters of Introduction

Landing on our threshold,

Words on paper leave the reader

Free to appropriate,

Free to reconsider,

To say: No, I’ll not take that,

Yes, I will take this, at leisure,

Alone in my room. Your

Deities are not for me,

Not all. They must conform

With colours on my wall.

Who may we take in

Who will not take us in?

Must we be ever cautious

About the worlds that enter,

Trample our disposings,

Tumble our cushions?

It lies within our power

To cross a threshold gently,

In presence and on paper,

Grant entry to another

Whom one trusts without a letter,

A password, a token of a doubt,

That he or she will spill

The silence of our room.

A host invites a parasite

But guests may bring a sky,

Or sea, or landscape with them,

Yet leave the other free -

Not finches stripping buds

As they colour the welcoming tree.

©Terry Hodgson2025