Senses

 

Can you smell the air?
There is a change coming
It creeps into each new day
Small imperceptible signs
Smaller than ant footprints
And three extra minutes grace
Feels like a whole day
When the sun shines again

Assuage

Nothing now may shed a tear

Now the failure of all is near
When life is taken to be a test
Nothing now will grant me rest
Not wind, tide or natures' breath
For what is now left to assuage
Time travel is only a result of age
And we must always carry on
Or be a relic of times long gone

Undressed

But nothing is linear save time and tide

Sweeping wave and sagging seconds lost
Mark thought not of this earth, but of truth
Though saved perhaps by the raggedy rage
To so console and derive no love thus yet
It cannot be measured, cannot be guessed
What but the truth is best seen undressed?

See

I cannot see you now

But your tang still remains
On every surface you touched
In our bed; on my hands
Your scented selflessness
Nothing will ever be so sweet
As this honeysuckle and fish
Perfume of absent touch
And I cannot see you anymore
But still you have not left

Yielding

Snow may come now

Yet it will go
Days will rise again
Lengthen in lighted grace
Till they fall without regret
Under a nights soft moonlight
And ever a new world is here
Born on the turn of a globe
So descend now in haste
Through long starlit vale
Look out on a shimmering lake
The mirror of dreaming
We have a wish for spring
To make this a better place

Climb

Climb the crags to the skyward lake

Go at night and to new morn awake
Leave the world to its troubled search
Sit in clean air against the silver birch
Upon the remains of long ancient bones
And hardy sheep on sunlit washed stones
Hear a cry of hawks hunting in the sky
Free and unfettered from questions why
Take all your ease for there is no haste
Drink clear water untouched by waste
Joy in the world is all we need to know
When revelation comes on green plateau

Rain

The hive cloud ruptures and dissipates

Reveals a queen seeding the heavens
With aquatic insects that fall into air
Swarming into a prevailing wind
Dividing drop to ever smaller drop
And though rain turns groundward
Descending calves silken eyelashes
The rain cannot touch me now
I return identical to the day I left
And not the kiss of the very aged
Nor the cry of newborn armies
Can move me greatness under storms
For I am replete of waiting
And the more I may ask to leave
The more time makes me linger
It whispers with a softness of sleep
Stay till the rain stops forever
Till the sun comes and birds sing
When spring wreaks a green havoc
And warmth envelops you again
And only when I wish to continue
Will time assuredly take me away

The Year

January

The shortest day behind us
Already sun grows strong
Hope is borne among us
Now the days grow long
 
February

The snow and ice lie thickly

Upon the frozen ground
But already signs of rebirth
Poke out from grassy mound

March

The cold is now retreating

And the grass begins to grow
The hares are busy boxing
Spring is coming, they know

April

 
When the wasp queen awakens
Into early April showers
Her world will need rebuilding
And it will take all her powers
 

May

 
When the butterfly emerges
As in summer meadows I lay
We understand each other
And in the sunshine play

June
 
The sun reaches its potential
And no higher may it raise
I greet each dawn triumphant
In Nature's power to amaze

July

 
The world around me is rich
So it's time to enjoy the view
Listen to the joyous sounds
While the world is created anew

August

Yellow tinges the borders leaves
But flowers bloom in cascade
Fruit ripens on heavy boughs
The plans for winter are made

September

The days become much shorter
The nights grow steadily cold
The heat is still with us 
But the year grows steadily old

October

Here is the autumn equinox
Frost has raised his icy face
The moon is so clear and bright
As the first leaves lose their grace

November

The cold hard winter upon us

Bare trees reach for leaden skies
Warmth and food are currency
And all not prepared now dies

December

The year closes in remembrance
To set the winter truth alight
No matter how we contemplate
Nothing again is ever made right

Wonder

Wonder then; that is all there is
Life is trifle with layers of doubt
And only one sweet layer of chance
That could succour thine bitter lips
Lips that savour salt from sugared flesh
But no high sea would have thee
No bride of the ocean will you become
There is no boat with so bitter a crew
To sail away from this glacial down
Three thousand years in the making
The final divination of lineal regret
That has become a dream given form
Wonder then; that is all there is left

Duck and Dive

My two garden squirrels duck and dive

Burying food like treasure to keep them alive
They are too warm yet, to be snug in the dray
But when it's icy cold ,that's where they'll stay
Vermin perhaps, are these bushy tailed greys
But so much fun to watch, on winter days

New Year 2015

So small we are walking through all this greatness

We spend instance every day as though it were nothing
For we invented time, measured it; inhabited it
Though we have always misunderstood its subtlety
For who decided that the old year would end here?
And who first thought to mark its passing patience
And if time forgets his inconsistent friends; care not
Amends and regrets we will leave upon life's table
For we know true friends forgive us if they are able
All our memories we may spend until we are renewed
For the New Year is a breath of hope for better things