First thing we noticeupon entering the reservoir's secret sphere:an echo and an emptinessas if the chambers of the human brainhad been removed, scooped out to leavethe hollow of a barren skull. I won't say 'no birds sing'for you may hear their cheerful chatterin their nests above the dambelow, the rim betrays the lake's mishandlingby human... Continue Reading →
The river was in spate,in spite of this, we crossed it:water reaching almost to my waistI carried my little one whilemy eldest waded I know this section of the river wellhaving paddled downstream years agoin summerthere are pools of deeper waterbut ample shallows:it is safe And also crystal-clear:all over the UK, even herepollution tops out... Continue Reading →
The Peacock to the Admiral said(as on the thistle blooms they fed)‘What think'st thou of this human-kind do they have soul, or sense, or mind?' One lighted on a human hand as if to say, ‘I understand: you have such power over meyet do not wield it lovingly.’ And sure enough Man casts his net:and pins her in... Continue Reading →
‘ Put out the light...But once put out thy lightI know not where is that Promethean heat That can thy light relume’ (Shakespeare, Othello, 5.2.7-13) Lightning blinds usthen shows usthe world in negative:the whites of our eyes darkened andthe black, alight with ire A lightning flashcan down a treeor be the blue touch-paperto tinder-box dry earthkindling... Continue Reading →
Do you not see the beauty of the trees,how they arch over you, their branches raised, as if in hymns of praisetheir secret voices carried on the breezein the rustle of chlorophyllic leaves?Only everywhere. Could you not stretch out beneath them, look up through their limbs into the lightor shelter from a rainstorm underneaththeir canopy... Continue Reading →
I found jewels in a barnacled crevicewithin the cracked rocks on Cullercoats beachteetering close to the pools like a novicesaltwater gems within reach I found gold in the liminal lightspacein the little-boy-blue of your eyesin the smile on my son’s cherubic facein the sea with its pull, with its sighs I found peace in the... Continue Reading →
What bright darkness gleams atop the oil slick, lights with quartzite glintsthe cut coal seam? What sacred oozes from the bowels of the earth make men richer, turn their hearts to pitchand light the sky on fire? What green rivers of covetousness flow through politicians' pockets, line their tailored suits, close seamssealing their lips forevermore? So when... Continue Reading →
Every day, I waken to birdsong:sometimes the lark and thrush, sweet twitteringor the sparrow and the chaffinch, cheerful chatteringor the rook, cawing in raucous symphony:signature calls, all poetry to me Your touch draws out a different kind of birdsonglow moaning, from a hollow deep in metransformed through love into a holy plainsongwhere never sin, nor... Continue Reading →
"Not favoured spots alone, but the whole earth,The beauty wore of promise" - William Wordsworth It isn’t a hard roadgracefully, it curves upwardaway from all the would-be caresof this tired new worldback to the old, forgotten things:tree and mountain flower and streamopen common ground.True, there are pitfalls:abandoned mine shaftsbut these have been cairned, carefully by those who... Continue Reading →
I dreamt of Autumn leaves in Summer:a row of tall beech trees along the road to Dalston, blazing yellow, and a woman said,'It starts like this: they’ll pray tomorrow and in a few more years, we’ll all be dead.' I dreamt of seasons turning upside-downand blood-red furrows fouled the sodden plowand all of this to those in... Continue Reading →
