Clouds

 White vapour wings are flying east

And we watch them like we are birds
Hawks of day hovering near to shore
To hunt truth in all its soft precision
Grey clouds strafe rapidly over the sky
They take away the last of the snow

Merry Christmas

The wonder of Christmas is you

You are a true light that shines
The first glimmer of the pole star
You light my footsteps always
Even when you are not here
If I made an essence of humanity
Its main constituent would be you
Filled with the grace of the Earth
And I wonder how you could grow
Adult without and a child within
Who still values the joy of this life
And is forever filled with its noble spirit
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Winter Solstice

On the hallowed winter solstice rejoice

Sun shall rise like a shrunken potentate
Disappear away so soon to night like regret
Yet the war is over but for the reparation
And with their bluestone heels to the east
See light walk upon the Stonehenge monoliths
And so is wound the great clock of antiquity
And the king now renewed begins to ascend
Ready for summer among his beloved Sarsens

The Plan

To have a to-do list; then to carry it out

Good intentions alone are not what it's about
If you value your work than make a plan
Back it up now before the poo hits the fan
I have written for weeks of all I was able
Now all is lost surely as though it were fable
So now on file I shall keep my spidery hand
Till all my work is safe just like I had planned

Vanguard

Clouds roll in from the sea; the first vanguard of change

They break upon land unseen but who would be sentinel here?
To witness this vision coalescing under the high sundered layer
And none may now ascend to it and study the retreating waves
That fall back under a swift setting sky to leave the west in ruin

Howl

Inside the dreaming

The dog howls
Opens his throat
To airy nocturnal song
Like a nightingale
Lost in the gloom
And for me what hurts
It is always in darkness
When he is alone

Colossus

The colossus of an endless length

Size is the guarantee of strength
The immovable fixed within space
Ancient monolith of timeless grace
And all its windows of empty light
Kiss the world in transparent might

Swans

Swans flow across glass lawns

They shimmer in winter sunlight
Icebergs gliding upon a frozen lake
To fade distant with a fleeting grace  
Transitory as snow falling on water

What

The tall tree of hope clad in a bark of ages

That now fissures and shreds down to earth
Like gulls that catch stale bread on the wing
Or a windmill entrapping the world's breath
Then of what may exit and what may stay
When dreams begin to cut upon the edge of day
And all I wish is to take my leave to a pardon
Like an unwilling debt, years of neglect harden
When night gives way again to yet more light
Who will kiss the wind and say goodnight

November 2014

Smokebush

4 frame panoramic view from Darwen Tower towards the Lake District

 

Autumn colour at the lake