from The Poems of Rowan Williams (2014) gwen John in Paris1 for Celia I I am Mrs Noah: my clothes-peg head pins sheets out between showers; in my clean cabin, my neat bed, the bearded Augusti lumber in and out. I am Mrs Noah: I call the beasts home together, the cat to lie down with the slug, the nun with the flapper. I comb the hair of ferns to dry on deck. I am Mrs Noah: arranging the flowers in bright dust round my garden shed, I watch the silent sky without doubt, in the soaked moonlit grass sleep without dread. I am Mrs Noah: the blossoms in the jug throw their dense pollen round the stormy room like foam; my hands hold beasts and friends and light in check, shaping their own thick gauzy rainbow dome. 11