Leaning on the gate at the bottom of the garden

framed by leaves,
I watch dragonflies

rise

from the water,

where boats bob,
chinking their moorings,

percussion to the song of the gentle breeze
weaving through trees.

A distant lawnmower chugs and splutters
with the harmonising engine of a passing boat,

the drifting scent of barbecues
and something frying at the local pub.

No humans mar the solitude.
No voices shatter the peace.

Just a pair of ducks.
They paddle and flap sodden wings

at a swooping pigeon,
droplets plinking among waterlilies.

Memories rise like bubbles
of the first time we came here together,

no estate agent to spoil the moment
or our dreams of it becoming our future,

you and me looking into the garden
from the other side of the gate.

How could I ever forsake this peaceful view
for pastures new?

Kim M. Russell, 10th June 2025

Today at the dVerse Poets Pub, Dora is hosting Tuesday Poetics with a view of one’s own.

Dora begins by musing on summer and vacations, interspersed with some lovely quotations and poems from a wide range of poets, including Langston Hughes, Mary Wollstonecraft, Wordsworth and Shelley. I particularly enjoyed re-rereading Eliot’s Prelude, and encountering for the first time Jenny George’s ‘Spring’ and Minnie Bruce Pratt’s ‘Temporary Job’ and ‘The Sound of One Fork.

Dora would like us to conjure views, whether from our travels or everyday life, whether from desire or experience, that are coloured by the emotion of the moment to be recollected and/or cherished.

36 thoughts on “Leaning on the gate at the bottom of the garden”

  2. This is absolutely stunning, Kim! I especially love this part; “No humans mar the solitude.
    No voices shatter the peace. Just a pair of ducks. They paddle and flap sodden wings at a swooping pigeon, droplets plinking among waterlilies.” ❤️❤️

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  3. How indeed?! The conclusive lines, surprising from their remembered perspective, really crowns this peaceful, solitary scene. The range of imagery, sensations of eye and ear, wrap us in the moment, the emotion and the splendor. So lovely, Kim.

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