Tag: Beit She’an

I watch them whirling
as dervishes across mosaics
of an ancient floor, Scaling mortar
to dance a different shape
beneath my feet

over lilies, tessellated ochre 
and faded blue, In midday heat, 
dust barely rose along Palladius street
I, walking with ants consider them
those lilies, and all the trodden 

steps of Canaanite, Philistine,
Greek, Byzantine, through wars and peace
from fire and final quake. And metres high
above the flat-topped Tell*, a raptor sees all
even ants dancing on mosaics

• Dervishes, a mystical sect of Islam from Turkey whose worship included a spinning dance
• ‘consider the lilies’ bible reference Matthew 6:25; Luke 12:27
• Tell – a raised mound marking the site of an ancient city, in this case Beit She’an in Israel which I visited in March. Like Caesarea Maritima, it has some of the best-preserved ruins in the Middle East,