In summer here, the easy-rhyming June
and soon the midpoint central symmetry,
the silence sings
orchestra and chorus hold the tune
song of the morning
before the sun’s too high and pitiless
somewhere still in chalk a hint of moon
waxing.
The white sky’s still and stunned, the pallid
landscape, lovely, languishes.
19th June 2023, Hounoux
Too busy to stay
Not much past ten and already that sun’s high and hot
but in one blessed corner honeysuckle’s dense
It’s overwhelmed the fence
and small shade is thrown.
Just enough for a chair and two cups, the coffee pot
and so I sit with the scent and the breath of air
as the black bees dance.
Then here’s a hummingbird hawkmoth
too busy to stay for my camera
his wings in a whirl, in for nectar, out and onwards
pinned instead in a memory
of heat and stillness, dance and silence, blackcap song
this Monday
magical.
June 5th 2023, Hounoux
May, mourning
The green high hedges of Devon’s complicated lanes
this May after rains
in torrents, dazzle
for many miles a tapestry
with yellow poppies, cow parsley
bluebells and campion.
For our two days here
gathered the five of us in grief
the beauty is a balm
deep blue hot sun a blackbird’s day-long song
and him, our friend, so sudden gone
who was our heart and core
his light and loveliness now part of the pattern
woven in the May
mourning.
May 16th 2023 Hounoux. I.M Neil Jameson.
Love’s story
Everywhere she said
I see him everywhere
the sorrow of it howling, silent on her face
So strange to look and look but find him gone
sixty two years this home, the farm and fields
together work and leisure days
Like Gabriel Oak whenever she looked up
but now, so strange,
his presence and his absence silent
ringing in the rooms.
Love’s story
quiet glory
tolled in desolation brimming
unshed tears.
January 28th 2023 Hounoux
Breath taken
In the chill and the bite
breath-taken tonight
I watched the huge moon rising
a glory in gold untethered afloat
each month’s magic returning
The glow and the glamour gilded the dark
glittering the coal-black night
In the cold and the shiver
ice in the air, astonished
I watched the wonder rising
11th December 2022 Hounoux
A bonny bird
All amongst the dross and drear, corruption and dismay
the daily news-round sullying our lives, corroding hope
here’s a bonny bird!
A bar-tailed Godwit, champion and record-breaker,
barely five months fledged
from Alaska flown, the flock unparented
this season’s young
world map within their egg and DNA
and our tracked winner, never touching down
non-stop, eleven days one hour
the length of the Americas, left at Hawaïi
then days above the blue, Pacific,
land and sea, sea and land, frozen north to south
Tasmania! One in a million
bonny bird!
October 29th 2022 Hounoux
Seven came
Seven came on coach and train
plus sometimes sprints
defying all our decades, dragging cases
nattering
Captain Jenny in the van, holding the train
Non! non! bold refrain
late and laughing to Toulouse
Three long days and lovely together, no programme
going with the flow
the morning valley, mists
and mosquitos, autumn sun and sharing
memories and tears, fears, laughter
fifty years after
on ladders teetering, for olives
and tamarisk pruning, Penny
Sunday lunch and soups, multiple
Fifty years after
Jessie, role play and foolish exercises
we’ve learned, we nine
the perfect number, fitting format for our lifetime
and understood with passing time and frailties
what’s priceless
precious beyond rubies, such love and friendship
best vintage, beautiful champagne
October 12th 2022, Hounoux, for the seven.
