Ned Balbo

A Shimmer of Dust and Starlight

 Jailed by Richard III, Sir Henry Wyatt (ca. 1460-1537, father of poet Thomas Wyatt) was saved from starvation by the cat who visited his Tower of London cell with the spoils of her hunt: reportedly, the local pigeons—so legend says.

Little is known of Henry Wyatt’s cat—

What’s said is probably apocryphal,

like other myths a knight-aristocrat

might gather after two years in a cell,

starvation days, and sessions on the rack,

true to his oath, set free, and welcomed back.

Such courage has its costs… We pay in love,

that hooded falcon, fastened to a glove,

released to day’s last sunlight creeping in— 

Or else we call on shadows like a ghost:

some shimmer of dust and starlight, tattered shape or

savior moving close, gray formless vapor

carrying its kill, fur edged with frost,

to rest on straw beside the paladin. 

Note: From the Wiat Monument inscription, north wall of chancel, St. Mary and All Saints, Boxley, Kent (memorial ca. 1702): “To the Memory of Sir HENRY WIATT of Allington Castle, Knight Banneret, descended of that ancient family, who was imprisoned and tortured in the Tower in the Reign of King RICHARD the Third, kept in the dungeon where fed and preserved by a cat.” 

Ned Balbo's six books include The Cylburn Touch-Me-Nots (New Criterion Prize), 3 Nights of the Perseids (Richard Wilbur Award), and The Trials of Edgar Poe and Other Poems (Donald Justice Prize and the Poets’ Prize). He’s taught in Iowa State's MFA program in creative writing and environment and received grants from the NEA (translation), Maryland Arts Council, and Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation. He is married to poet and essayist Jane Satterfield. For more, visit https://nedbalbo.com.