I live at the boundary
between urban and rural life
at the threshold of the countryside,
where daily birdsong
soothes my woes, and calms my strife
I ride out across rolling fields
where factories encroach upon the rivered wild
the beck meanders like a playful child
and bullocks feeding at the margins
snort and stamp their feet at passersby
I press on to the further wild
where the ground undulates
and swells to meet the mountain heights
finding true freedom here
amongst the best of nature’s wild delights
Returning, I can’t help but notice
how shades of the prison house
begin to close upon* the margins of the town
and city-dwellers with their heads bowed down
have lost touch with their natural state, unbound
And I would pull them up and out
into this wild uncommon common ground
that they might live a life again
in harmony with nature
and all the love and hope they’d lost, re-found.
*from Wordsworth, ‘Intimations of Immortality,’ everything else: © 2022 experimentsinfiction.com. All Rights Reserved.
Written for Brendan’s earthweal challenge, The Commons.
Experiments in Fiction 
You’ve really captured something here. Well done!
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Thank you Nick x
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I agree with Nick Ingrid. your poem both beautifully expressive and profound, in a positive way .. 🌏💚💛☮
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Powerful and profound.Wonderful piece, Ingrid. Truly enjoyed.💕
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Thank you Grace 💖
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My pleasure.💕
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That liminal space between urban and rural, a place of natural beauty that so many do not see, or ignore. I can see how this beautiful place inspires you, Ingrid. This is a lovely poem.
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Thank you Merril 😊
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You’re welcome, Ingrid!
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Beautiful, Ingrid! This poem is so joyous and so meaningful. I will take inspiration now as i go for my morning walk. <3 Thank you. <3
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I am glad to hear that Cheryl – thank you! 🥰
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You get to be in the in-between. Lovely way you express this. I feel you live in a beautiful piece of earth. xoxo
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I do indeed, Selma, I am blessed 🙏 thank you ❤️
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I am swept away. Yours is a needed voice, in tune with the beauty both in and around you. Uplift you do! 🌄
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Thank you for your words, Michele, which arrived at just the right moment 🙏
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It is my privilege and pleasure to be in your space at the right time, celebrating nature and poetry with you. 🙏🏻
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what a beautiful poem with such love in your words of the prison house capturing shades better days wished for 💖💖💖
“And I would pull them up and out
into this wild uncommon common ground
that they might live a life again”
lovely Ingrid! 💖
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There’s hope for all of us out here 🌳
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Yes, indeed there is Ingrid! 💖
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Oh yes! I love this, especially your closing stanza. Let’s drag people into the wild uncommon common ground and re-connect them to the earth they dont even know they are missing. Beautifully written.
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It was something that occurred to me when out cycling: people get trapped in the prison of their town houses and never see the nature on their doorstep…
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As always, you recreate the landscape beautifully.
People can be in a the wild and still be staring at their phones. Or people (like me) can be in the city, looking around for the bird she can hear but not see (always, always). I think we need to start with the way people interact with the world. (K)
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Yes, we do have a roundabout way of doing things…
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A wonderful poem about our true state, and the compassion we can have toward each other. Beautiful, Ingrid.
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Thank you Jeff! 🙏
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Most welcome, Ingrid! 🙏
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This is such a lovely verse and love how you seamlessly wove that line in between. ❤️
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Thank you Punam 🙏
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My pleasure. 😊
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such a delightful healing piece Ingrid … so many need to reconnect with nature to let the light back into their soul! Well done :)
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Thanks Kate 😊
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Wordsworth’s poetry is an excellent crystal for channelling the commons – too bad there is so much of the uncommon to have to stride out from now. But the language of commons is still among us and can be cultivated and grown back! Good work, Ingrid –
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Thank you Brendan 🙏
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Fertile ground, those spaces between worlds.
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Always – thank you Lindi!
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How stunning that opening stanza is! I love the experience it captures. :)
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Thank you Jaya 😊
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What a piece! Touched the deepest of my heart. 💗
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Glad to hear it, Lamittan!
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The pleasure is mine
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This is a lovely evocation of the way going out into nature refreshes the spirit. I like the way you have described the drabness you see in the townsfolk when you return. I agree, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could share some of the freedom we find in nature with them.
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I really noticed the difference in how people behaved when I got back to town. Thanks Suzanne!
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This is lovely, Ingrid. You are a true heir to the Romantic poets!
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Thank you, Sarah…I do have a project to that effect in the pipeline, actually!
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In this journey away from and then back to town, I especially love the rhyme and repeated sounds . . . and then the ambition to return bringing along others, a gentle necessity. I think it can be done (and is being done) a little at a time.
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I hope so, and I think so too!
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