Saturday, 1 March 2014

A poem a day -


Day 57

Sun light blanches my view
Turns scrubby Bedfordshire fields
Into a savannah of beige and tan
Exotic, but the only lions are our pet cats.

Last night when an icy darkness
Slunk over this land, we heard foxes calling 
To one another back and forth 
These aren't urban foxes scavenging by bins
These are mysterious sleek coated creatures
Wary and wily hunting for rabbit and hare.


Day 58

Golden stars bobbing
Amongst slender green daggers, 
Big brutal, spring blooms. 


Day 59

It takes a little while for my eyes to adjust 
And for my ears to get used to the night time
The faintest shush of distant traffic 
The reedy call of an unknown pond bird, 
My gaze is fixed on the north, then
A rolling ribbon of light unravels along the horizon
No real colour to it, just faintest yellowish, whitish, green
But as I spot the aurora borealis the fox sings out
As if greeting the northern lights, telling his mate of their arrival
She barks back excitedly until the whisper of an aurora is over.  

I've seen the northern lights twice before
In Yorkshire utterly unexpected 
We did not know what we saw! 
Then in Canada staged amidst mountains 
To a backdrop sequinned with stars
And a wandering comet 
I couldn't have asked for more!
Biting cold but warmed by whisky
Standing with my head thrown back 
Until my neck became sore with watching the lights
Weaving through the sky, wonder, mystery and delight! 


Day 60

The black dog

Blasted black dog
Bothering Churchill
Bothering me 
And 1 in 4 of us*
(*At some point in our lives)
Growling grizzly beast 
Slobbering with anxiety
Embodying depression 
Looming into view 
Even on the brightest of days
Worrying my thoughts like sheep 
Unwelcome companion 
Untrainable, feral  
Haunting hound of legend
Black shuck bounding 
Unstoppable into my life 
Savaging me and those I love.   

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