Maybe a fledgling magical

Maybe a fledgling magical

After the seashore footprints are gone

Vanished under the tide

Or vee of geese is dwindled out of sight

Sound of the honk and beating wings

When merely an indigo arc remains

There where the rainbow fades

Only a trace a vapour trail

Drab where the dew diamonds shone

All gone the serendipity and dance

When wind shook shivering

And silent as a dream in red

Leaves fell through autumn skies

There in an echo of memory

Longing for beauty lost

At the end of the trail invisible

Haunted by beating wings

Maybe a fledgling magical

Maybe a poem takes flight

29th October 2010, Brighton, for Julie who gave me the book

Slow train treat

Slow train treat

Slow train treat alone

Window seat

Travelling west to south

Line layed across the landscape

Edged with embankment trees

Certainly set by an artist

Lover of colour ardent for

Scarlet, all the reds

Circling tone by tone

Claret to burgundy

Cinnabar, sienna

Orange to melon

Peach pear lemon

Yellow to gold, bold, compliment/ clash

Hot slice of the rainbow

Glorious in edible oils

Re-load the brush, dip

Daub for the copper beech

The chestnuts, birch and oak

Ablaze in a wood or copse

Fields far as the eye can see

Echoes again in umber

Of aubergine damson plum

Furrowed in winter earth

Gorgeous the glittering gift

Under a luminous sky

Eye to heart, heart in mouth

Breath-taken

Travelling west to south

25th October 2010, train Bristol to Brighton

Driving westward

Driving westward

Stark trees are inked along the hills
At sinking of the sun
And in its wake the dusk is pink
A blush upon the land
Where vines in lines stretch far and wide
Notation on the staves
Singing of cinnabar songs
A vapour trail all molten gold
Is seamed across the blue
And rising now the chalky moon
At sinking of the sun

20th October 2010, Hounoux, for Gill and for Susan, who opened my eyes

Setting the world on fire

Setting the world on fire

And how is it this season, reason
Lifts then breaks the heart?
Claret and burgundy splash and spill
Virginia creeper, lace-maker
Dressed, Sunday best, is all across the hill
Too much the autumn palette
Set against the blue
Hips and berries mad profuse
Abundance run amok
Firethorn ignites the burning bush
The landscape’s lit, ablaze
Here leaves are falling, sparking embers
Red and gold they dance
Setting the world on fire
So spins the colour wheel
At tilt and turning of the year
Glad brimming swim and dropping tears
Too beautiful the mellow months
That lift then break the heart

16th October 2010, at Julie and Martin's in the Ariege

Chateau Guilhem

Chateau Guilhem

Grapes blue-black ,globes in trailing clusters
Easy-pickings sticky squirt
Or twined and twisted clingy round the vine
Hiding, for merlot leaves are large

Up this line in steady progress we the extras edge
Scissor snips with care, ‘Allez allez!’
The patron calls the pace. Fill the bucket
Then the hod, till the rows are stripped
And in the truck piled pyramid, will-be one day wine

Now he whistles shocking, tells the toilers ‘Stop!’
Sunday sun is hot and climbing. We temporary peasants
Amble haphazard, eddy through the vines
Bidden to the chateau, lawns, ancient trees
We sit and sip, shaded, loving the rural life
Today’s role. For wages here’s a country feast,
Ad lib the wine

We’ve played our parts in the pageant
Enacted an ageless scene
Soil to vine to fruit to wine
Produce of the land
Gathered, good work, today

4th October 2010, Hounoux (4 in the sleepless morning)

Wolf wind

Wolf wind

Wolf wind is raging
Pent within the stack
Blow blow buffeting relentless
To be in, roar and rampage
But here’s another element
Primitive
Will keep the wolf at bay
Oak and pine ignited, crack and pop
Retort
Orange purple lick and flicker
Flaming, wins the day
October’s first fire, glamorous
Gladdening the hearth

2rd October 2010, Hounoux, for Clare my fellow fire-watcher