Autumn
Leaves piled high on a pavement:
Crisp, browns and gold, reds and faded green,
An exotic box of breakfast cereal
Strewn across the street.
I’m flung back fifty years.
I met her in October, my autumn girl.
Those chestnut eyes, that ripe golden smile,
The chocolate tresses.
She took delight in autumn leaves,
Wading through their soft waves,
Kicking up bronze and golden snowstorms.
It was a thing we did.
We laughed at Peanuts – Snoopy,
Kicking up leaves, mimicking us,
Cried: “I’m hooked on autumn!”
We became universal.
My hair is greying now.
Hers shorter, but still autumnal brown.
The chestnut soft – but paler, warmer.
Our kicking days fading.
There’s chill in the autumn air.
Oh, but we were majestic
In the spring days
FULL MOON
Chill air glows in the darkness.
Frost touched grass sparkles.
Above in resplendent majesty
The moon like a gold sovereign
Lightly distributes largesse
Over its realm.
Stars bow their heads
Dimmed by the brightness.
An owl, pale hunter, shimmering in flight,
Hoots in wonder.
A hare, moving through the chill grass
Stalls, looks up, bedazzled.
Fragile Beauty
Blossom in Spring! Blackthorn
And plum, apple and hawthorn –
A white array from March to May.
But the loveliest of all
Is the cherry. With clouds of froth
It paints the sky pink.
On a walk we encountered a wild one.
A busy hive of blossom
In pink-white showers. Domes of flowers
Each the size of a desk bell.
We picked some sprigs, hoping
To preserve their beauty in a vase.
Before our return they were limp.
In the vase they turned dull. And died.
We break nature for our pleasure
And plunder the earth for its treasure.
We grasp at fragile beauty
But cannot conserve it in glass.
Summer
(Inspired by John Clare’s “Autumn”)
I love a day that starts so still,
The remnants of the dawn chorus
Echoing on a temperate wind.
A pearlescent sky holds its breath,
Then streams of golden light cascade:
A sennet to announce the waking hour.
I love a walk along a beach,
Soft and warming underfoot,
Before the hectic whirlabout.
The salt breeze clamour of the gulls
And rasp and rolling of the waves
All seem to fade across a boundless sky.
I love a breathless afternoon.
A vista from a country hill:
A skylark’s incantation above,
Fields like rumpled laundry below
And sheep polka dotted around
With distant windows glinting in the sun.
And finally a summer night:
At first a sunset, crimson barred,
Then Venus, vanguard of the stars,
Leads constellations across the sky,
While darkness settles on the earth
And the long, hot day has taken to its rest.
