Restricted View

From the window and in the confines
of the garden, I watch spring advance.

Willow buds and almost-blossoms dance
on the breeze, promising abundance
yet to come. High above in the heavens
are black smudges of distant ravens,
harbingers let loose among vernal festivities.

Stuck alone within these walls, but blessed
with flowers, hedgerows and trees,
the wider view of countryside is lost to me:

free-flying crested grebes sailing the reeds
and flocks of swans gathering in the fields.

Kim M. Russell, 26th March 2020

Restricted View

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Meeting the Bar: Final Couplet, also linked to Poets and Storytellers United Writers’ Pantry

Frank is back at the bar, asking us to write poems with final couplets. He reminds us that a couplet is two similar lines of verse, in which both lines have the same meter, but they do not have to rhyme.  I personally love rhyming couplets.

Frank says the poem need be no longer than a couplet or it could have anything else before the final couplet including free verse or a prose poem, s Shakespearean sonnet with a couplet at the end, a modified haibun, replacing the haiku with a couplet (or two American sentences or one American sentence split on two lines).

Examplesb include a couplet standing alone, by Alexander Pope, and a link to Gerald Stern’s ‘Box of Cigars’.

63 thoughts on “Restricted View”

    1. Thanks Björn. There is so much I’d like to see. Today I went outside of house and garden for a longer walk around the village football pitch opposite. There was no sound of humans except for one or two cars that passed by on the road, and not one person to be seen.

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  11. kaykuala

    free-flying crested grebes sailing the reeds
    and flocks of swans gathering in the fields.

    How lovely is the scene now that we are restricted in movements. Lovely narrative of the view, Kim!

    Hank

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  12. I like the casual rhyming in this , KIm…..advance, dance, abundance, heavens, ravens…and that’s a fine couplet at the end, hope it’s not too long before you can see that scene again! JIM

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    1. Thank you, Jim. I like casual rhymes and couplets, I’m just watching Mojo (the smaller of our two cats) exploring a clump of daffodils by the back gate. :)l

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    1. Not a good place to be at the moment. Up here, it’s much easier for people to keep the social distance but, from what I’ve read, not everyone does, and we’ve had second-hand coming up and acting like they’re o n holiday. The first week of self-isolation was hard, but this week was a little easier. We received news that one of my husband’s old band members, the bass guitarist, died this afternoon, but we don’t know the cause. It’s worrying.

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  20. Even the willow buds and almost-blossoms,” are aware of what stirs within the ribcage 🙂 may we survive these difficult times. A most gorgeous poem, Kim! 💝

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    1. Oh they are, Hazel! Yesterday, I went for a walk around the local football pitch, which is opposite our house, and noticed blossoms in the blackthorn already, as well as a tree I couldn’t identify. Hope springs…

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  23. If we changed countryside for city, these stanzas could’ve flown right out of my heart. I am completely isolated, but never alone. Not while I have my window, my garden, my camera, my ink… and the odd visiting bird.

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    1. I’ve added a walk around the village football pitch over the last few days, Rosemary, and can see a field beyond the hedge and an acquaintance’s garden. An expanded view!

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    1. They are! I’m so fortunate to live in the countryside. Where I used to live in London looks bleak. I can’t understand people who are ignoring curfews and taking advantage of the situation to commit crimes.

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