For Jonathan on his 70th birthday*

Even at 70
I can’t imagine
one stops wondering

at those wonders
surrounding
each day and hour

clearly etched
recorded
in the growth of trees

where future states
are no more certain
than an April wind.

No bad thing then
to review
his life and work

to question again
where we think we are
in this world’s plan.

A life lived
between experiment
and pain

He teaches us
still to look
and look again

at nature’s fragile
patterning
and its chaotic hand.

‘Oh the mystery of
what lies between the
body and the mind.'