Five oak trees point the way

(i)
Look out for magpies,
five on my silver birch,
they will laugh at you
for a while, until
you have counted them all.

(ii)
Listen for the sound of acorns
falling and bouncing
across the road
where five oak trees
point the way.

(iii)
Follow the aroma
of freshly brewed coffee
from the pub
in the bend of the road –
it opens at five.

(iv)
Don’t forget to stroke the cats
along the way,
there may only be one,
there may be five.
They are all friendly.

(v)
The rowan trees are long gone,
but look carefully
and you will see a sign,
on the wall next to the front door,
and a blue Beetle parked outside.

Kim M. Russell, 5th October 2023

Image by Nadin Thompson on Unsplash

Today is the 5th October, National Poetry Day in the UK and, over at the dVerse Poets Pub, Laura is asking us to Meet the Bar with five directions. Her prompt is based on a poem by Juan Filipe Herrera entitled ‘Five directions to my house’, which we are taking as inspiration.

Laura wants us to write our poems in five quintains, as a Pentastich Quintain, which is rhymeless and meterless. Each stanza must be one of five ways to our house (real or imaginary), and can be literal or metaphorical, measured in time, direction,  etc or a mix. The title is our own choice but must begin: “Five…………”, and we must include a reference to Hererra’s poem somewhere in our posts.

37 thoughts on “Five oak trees point the way”

  5. I like how you and Jane had similarities between your poems. It’s wonderful, too, how I have become familiar with things surrounding all your homes by participating in these prompts. I begin to associate certain characteristics with your poetry, like the magpies and the coffee and the cats.☕️

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  11. Oh yes yes yes! Oak’s earth-grounding holds you to that place, and I can hear the pinging of those acorns as they bounce in the wind. The Magpie makes me happy this morning (“Five for silver”), and the Rowan reminds me of my friend Karen who lives at the magical Rowan Tree Cottage.

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