Alan Baker
Psalm 26
Give me grace to appreciate the antiseptic properties
Of sphagnum moss, grant me insight into the life-cycles of arthropods
Explain these disappearances so sudden and spiteful
Let the woodland lanes be host to gatherings at dusk
And let their whine and buzz be as synchronized as a single note
From a plucked string left to reverberate, faint and elusive
Let there be hormonal regulation of nervous system structure
And function extending to metamorphosis of the significant regulators
Of neural plasticity and let their songs fill the vaulted shades
And evening waters, biotope networks
And sites of organically-bound resistance
Alan Baker was born and raised in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and has lived in Nottingham since 1985. He runs the poetry publisher Leafe Press and its associated magazine, 'Litter'. His A Book of Psalms is due out with Shearsman Books in 2026.