A boozy bumblebee flewfrom May blossom drenched with dewand alighted on the ledgenear a blooming hawthorn hedge.After a dour start to spring,flirtatious buds are burstingand daisies dance in the grass. Insects are parched for sweet sipsof perfumed pollen from lipsof wayward woodbine flowerstumbling from bushy bowers.A bevy of bees in Maywill be worth a heap […]
Category: Poems
A poem to sum up my feelings in this post.
Mother
Until I rampaged into womanhoodand found myself adrift on the sea of life, you were a gorse bush flaming through my childhood,golden, scented with coconut, alive. You were my harbour when I shipwrecked motherhood,a beacon when relationships capsized. You encouraged me to be cautious in my adulthood,and always try to see through another’s eyes. Your […]
Time to Say Goodbye
February frost petals frozeonebyone, brittle tears of ice. Their shards pierced my heart,knowing that I had no partin your funeral, except I wrote a poem and read it out loud,proudto be your daughter. I blew my nose,tried to expel the bitter-sweet notesof Andrea Bocelli (not my choice) that reminded me that it was timeto say […]
Turnstone Sonnet
On such a day, to be beside the sea,immersed in seafoam rolling up the shore,and no one walking on the strand, just me,inhaling nature’s power, nothing more.Along the coast, the turnstones dip their beaksinto seaweed, fish bones and broken shells;like Sisyphus, they push and shove and tweakat pebbles brought in on the ocean’s swell.I’m not […]
Party Piece
The years roll back, forty, forty-four,to someone’s kitchen, somewhere in Dublin, where the cider’s flowing, there’s Guinness and more,guitars are tuned, and the girls are gathered in. We’re smiling, Rita and I, sitting on the floor,enjoying the music, voices rising and falling. It’s a proper session, everyone joins in,but it’s fallen quiet. “Come on,” someone […]
Dawn Chorus
Woken by the sound of birdsong,at first a distant tin whistle of a song,I pull on a sweater and step outside,where a pink and yellow colourwash creeps across the sky. When spring is almost at its peak,with blackbird, thrush and robin spilling music from their beaks,I can’t help but join in the joyful roundnow the […]
Fate
Am I a fool to want to float,to sail away on a leaky boat,exploring canals and rivers,trimming sails in squally weatheruntil I reach the estuaryand the freedom of the open sea?A mysterious cloud invokes my muse,questions the destiny I choose.What if I should lose my way?Then I will consult the sky: by dayI have the […]
Casting On With Grandmother
She taught me the art of patience,guiding awkward childish fingersto draw a loop around a needle,keep going until too-tight, sweat-soaked woolbecame a square. Knit was the basic stitch, purl soon followed,we explored more complicated structuresmore colourful and designs until, together,we conjured up a rainbowfrom cheap or unravelled yarnthat itched. Later, at parties, that knitterin the […]
Glazed
The clay is moist in our hands. We probe it with damp fingers, feeling resistance until we simultaneously throw it on our wheels with a wet thud. Percussion. The rhythm of the kick wheel gives us impetus to knead and sculpt, and shapes emerge, breathing together with their creators, merging into a breeze, a windy […]
Behind a library shelf…
1. You breathe in earthy, musty, woody redolenceof paper, inky words, dreams,the comforting scentsof stories, poetry from past ages,paper that was born in reamsand cut neatly into pages. 2. You touch surfaces caressed by other fingers,pristine, dog-eared, annotated,abused, their colours:white, yellow, dessicated;the satisfying sussurusas you turn each page over. 3. You peruse crisp, fresh print […]
writing in north norfolk 