Widdershins around the willow…

past a clump of daffodils,
wild and self-willed,
tangled
in the tall grass
where the bindweed grows.
In corkscrew branches,
a sunlit wood pigeon mutters
a throaty warning for pilgrims
to this place of Salix magic
where Nature is budding
green curtains of respectability
to replace her tattered rags of dignity.

Kim M. Russell, 3rd April 2018

willow-in-spring

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Poetics: Holy Places

This Tuesday, Amaya is hosting Poetics with a quote about the Paris-based, Arab poet, Adonis, and how he views the Holy Land, and ‘The Pilgrim’, a poem by Sophie Jewett, which she hopes will inspire us to explore questions about destinations to reach the divine; personal pilgrimages; and personal places of worship or contemplation.

34 thoughts on “Widdershins around the willow…”

    1. The word originates from Middle High German and means to go counter-clockwise, to go anti-clockwise, or to go lefthandwise, or to walk around an object by always keeping it on the left. I learned it when I was a child and loved the sound of it!

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  3. The dentritic tangle of roots and branches, who knows how many millions of synapses are released from them? Your poem is a celebration of wildness and it makes me want to go out under the box elder, bathe in its soil and look up where it writes scribbly poems against the sky.

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  13. The title alone made me want to break out in song..such a beautiful rhythm. Love your word choices here….”wild and self-willed”….oh yes! I do believe that nature can be spiritual.

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  14. very visual Kim – I can hear the wood pigeons resenting the intrusive pilgrim
    p,s, widdershins would make a good name for a cat I think as long as it did not need calling too often 😉

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