Poems

Teme

Through undulating borderlands Beneath the shadow of the dyke, Borrowed water slowly slips Cradled soft in clodding clay; Past Tenbury Wells Ludlow, Leominster;  Deep in benign backwaters, Recirculating sedimentary flow of Quiet, unhurried Teme. A seeping vein, sunk Low in storied earth, Snaking slow and sinuous, A rising sap to bless the Fruitful burdened boughs,  Silent stands …

I Am That I Am

[This poem was first published in 2021 by The Cultivating Project] Suburbia burns silentlyWhite candles burst inChoreographed conflagrationGraceful limbs engulfed inFleeting crowns of pastel flameAblaze yet not consumed Sophisticated minds swear blindSuch subtle orchestrations are butSkittering showers of sparksAccidentals struck loose by theWild, chaotic wheels ofDogged chance But is it so? Are we determined byMechanical …

Shortest Day

The year is on the ebb The pendulum is low All is in retreat A few last leaves hang Unloosed by snatching gales Limp as sodden leather  Languishing lifelessly Allies of dead summer Flapping on the gibbet To set an example   The once-emboldened sun Slides dreary through the motions Shuffling low in bleary skies …

Ripeness Is All

[This poem was published in 2021 by Ekstasis Magazine]   Icarus, Without the fated plunge, Is but a dreary grey-haired parable, Pragmatic unremarkable commute, Recklessness is crucial,  The brazen rise to kiss Apollo, Weaves the gossamer of myth;   In flushed freewheel of youth, Vital abandon strains,  Frothing fervid at the bit,  How easy to hold living light, …

Hibernation

Autumn exhaled her last A breath of swallows  Sighed upon the south  Before cold rags stopped up her mouth And cannon cracks of frost Felled the stragglers    The low slung sun Now barely grazes poplars on the hill  Cold light pressed low in furrows Glances from the sodden soil  Frost maps out long shadows Moored …