spring – My Devon Life

Spring Contrasts

Pocketed by the glove of fogThe day slips into a world of whiteWhere even the birdsAre silentAnd remain unseen.There’s a pointedness In the roughened fingers of windThat wrap around the western walls Causing slender branches to danceBeneath the misted pane.The old roof nods to the windPassing throughSlates rattle and timbers shiftRain coursesThe ground,a sodden carpetOfContinue reading “Spring Contrasts”

Observations in the Woodland Garden

My hands deep in the earth-Stained and wornWhere air is heavy and intense from spores released with rain;I watch fine droplets streaming down new leaves Arched over with weightAs fronds of fernsWith Prehistoric curlHang lowIn communion with Dog-toothed violet;Where faded primroses nodTo bluebells near purple in their Intoxicating intensity;The old fork is proppedReady to liftContinue reading “Observations in the Woodland Garden”

Renewal

Like the careful opening of a gift A secret beauty is revealedDay by day subtle changes stir As textures fill and colours popAmidst the tapestry of greenSherbert colours Open before our eyesYet we do not see the change A paradoxThe effect is clearerTransformational as Easter joy Miraculous by perfection and designResurrection and renewal of theContinue reading “Renewal”

In Fading Light

Evenings in fading lightOf lilac hueA day stretched to fitThe tilting sphereThe fervent call of the blackbird Echoing choral joy in the skies.

Spring in abeyance

Winter holds the signs of spring in abeyanceDaffodils nod to the strengthening windCrocus makes no statement bound in straggly grass Snowdrops bow low tightened and ResoluteA fire is lit in the grate and Curtains drawn. Birdsong quietens awaiting the callIllusions of spring awaiting fulfilmentThe lion to lay down with theLamb.

Late Frost in May

The soft dust of icing In the valley Shrunken to the margins of the fieldsLaid down in stealth through the Darkened hoursA purple stillness whichLater to the sun will yieldAnd warmth will reign the day along For now the sky is powdery and cool The ground compact and hard.

Four seasons of April

Twenty four hours Four-seasoned elements Wrestle withBanks of heavy cloudTraction a different rhythm Of snow flurries that sweep acrossBent rows of daffodils;A north wind pummels The naked branches of the ash;Winter defies with its iron claw And blossom falls from plum and thorn;The buzzard swoops low over the fields in a whitish hazeAnd disappears fromContinue reading “Four seasons of April”