Sacred Love
Sacred Love Once I dreamt that I was a photon travelling from the sun to the earth and being drawn into a green leaf. How happy I was to be passed along a membrane in a thylakoid from one phospholipid to another; a heavenly chain in a chloroplast. The mechanism was divine. I was ecstatic […]
Night Fishing
In the obscure dark of night river, poised on rock, the shag preens itself; head tilts this way and that, beak catches gold from a streetlamp.
Candle-power
Candle-power Strike a match, flares into flame. Light the wick, glows into life. Illuminates our faces, gleams in our eyes. Gilded within our magic circle. But a spell with a strict time limit. Even Cinderella’s expired at midnight. Reduced to a stub, gutters and dies. A wisp of smoke in a pool of wax.
All Souls
i Starlings rumble the morning; dark clouds constantly moving. Wren mute with their bantering. They are potent. I breathe and think of friends who walk softly beside me even though they are dead. ii Your light kindles my light and my light kindles another and suddenly the darkness is ablaze with lamps of gold.
January 2017 Challenge
In these short days (but getting longer, hurrah) here’s a poem by David Morley about light. More specifically, artificial light: http://www.poetryarchive.org/poem/way And here’s a completely different view of light from Dannie Abse: http://www.poetryarchive.org/poem/o-taste-and-see Artificial, natural or imagined – Light.
Ghosts
In a window of blue surrounded by rain. A quiet spectre circles between post and pond. Twilight’s shadow anoints white feathers. Her keen eyes watch for reed twitches. Heartbeats drum in grass and branch. A dive and a crunch. Blood runs to ground. Shrieks break the silence. I run along the flooded lane. Fear, joy […]
My old friend
My old friend I pass him in the street. At least, I think it’s him. Or is it..? I turn, only to find he’s disappeared into the crowd. Sudden stab of regret. Not seen him in years. We were close for a time but his job took him to another part of the country. Somehow, […]
September (a poem)
September isn’t the same since it laid itself out on the lane fooling me with doggo-ness and dogginess. It plays a double game. Muddy prints in the hall and an earthy smell in the deeds where it nuzzles 12th among the heretofors. And in the graveyard where it barks 15th and will bite for […]
A passing problem
A passing problem Parked behind a huge skip piled high with builders’ rubble. Quite an obstacle in such a narrow street. Signal to move out, glance in my mirror and over my shoulder. Nothing coming from behind. Start edging out, gingerly. Suddenly notice a flashing light ahead at the other end of the skip. Another […]
January 2015 Prompt
Oh, bother, I was convinced that this prompt had been written and scheduled to appear at 7am this morning. But I can’t find any sign of it, so here it is again: Here’s a short poem by Paul Farley from his collection ‘Tramp in Flames’: As the crow flies Became an idea, a pure […]