Cheese on Toast

I remember when we used to walk hand in hand
along a sandy road that led to North Sea dunes,

so deep into the night the lights had gone out
in all the houses; we were guided by a sky

full of stars and every time the moon
disappeared, a nosy neighbour behind a curtain

of cloud, we were overwhelmed by the darkness,
giddy with the mystery of the night – and us.

Back home in a cottage groaning with sea gales,
collecting salt like tears on its window panes,

we huddled together and shared tales,
hopes, dreams and a plate of cheese on toast

by a roaring fire: you and me, with a dog and a cat,
late at night, making plans and laying ghosts.

Kim M. Russell, 3rd April 2019

Image result for stargazing in Sea palling Pinterest
Image found on Pinterest

My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Poems in April 3: Late night conversations with the muse, also linked to earthweal Open Link Weekend #63

Sanaa welcomes us to the third day in April with a lovely poem by Michael Faudet: ‘Late Night Coffee’. She invites us to write and share a poem about late night, what goes through our minds or appeals to us during the time when stars are somewhere behind the moodiness of clouds.

37 thoughts on “Cheese on Toast”

  2. My goodness this is good! ❤️ I could picture the “cottage groaning with sea gales, collecting salt like tears on its window panes,” and oh “a plate of cheese on toast by a roaring fire,” all the elements that make for a vivid and passionate poem! 😀 Thank you so much for writing to the prompt, Kim! ❤️

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  3. This is the second time you have written of cheese toast. I always love the simplicity and the intimacy of it. I can see you fixing it in that late night and hear the conversation between you and your husband.

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  8. Back home in a cottage groaning with sea gales,
    collecting salt like tears on its window panes

    These details really make the moment for me, with hints of pathetic fallacy.

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  10. How intimate and beautiful! It’s lovely how you bind the reader in this experience with concrete word pictures and the feelings that they bring about as well. This is exquisite: “Back home in a cottage groaning with sea gales,/collecting salt like tears on its window panes”.

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  14. the mystery of the night sky, and the mystique of the darkness enveloping, shared and prised apart, with another, … what pleasure and satisfaction!

    I love the small details in this Kim – the accentuated moodiness of the outside, then the creature comforts inside …. and what a superbly crafted ending…. making plans and laying ghosts.
    Stellar!

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    1. Thank you so much, Pat. Where we lived then was a mysterious place and pitch black at night as there were no street lights. You could see every star and, at times, the Aurora Borealis. List of ghost stories and legends too, And that little cottage was magical – our first home together.

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      1. it truly sound special Kim – it’s wonderful you have such good memories and can weave the spells to keep them alive 🙂

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  19. I can just picture the cosy and sheltered scene! I love the half-rhyme of:

    ‘overwhelmed by the darkness,
    giddy with the mystery of the night – and us.’

    It really leaps into life. Reminds me of staying in a cottage on the Southwest Scottish coast!

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