SUMMER WALK

 Each springy step, thro'

Tangled net of rotting growth,

Branch moss and shrub.

Tumbled fragments...

Sprouting soft sprays,

Spikes... green, gold & pink,

Leaves fluted, fluttering.

Knees seeking paths

Twix shoulder-high

Brackeny confusion.

Such profusion!

LETTING GO

 Letting go

Feels strange

When 1 love you

So that 1 think of you

Every day.

Imagine your smile,

Your grunted acknowledgements;

The knowingness .... between us..

The times when 1 listen

And love to hear what you say...

When I want you to understand.

1 treasure our closeness,

But 1 know that....

Growth... needs distance.

Love wants growth

In the beloved.

So....

See you,

Sometime...

Later...

A SONNET

(to a daughter)

 Think not (my love)

I disregard

Thy gentle gifts*

Soft beauty

Of warm flesh,

Golden sounds

And rhythms

Of voice and instrument.

For graven

Upon my memory

Firelit ... you sit,

The mistress of your art

With cradled bow and viol,

'Playing along'

With Tchaikovsky!

*Gifts, as in 'Gifts and Discoveries'

A Quaker term denoting - surprising, untoward

beneficence or 'Grace

POST‑PARTUM

 Within Without!

 A part, Apart!

 Hold and

Withhold,

 An a! the whiles Befriending!

THE GOAT

 The trampled trough

Forbode Minoan terror,

But goatly bleating greeted

And curious nosing....

Then lippy nibbling,

Veined ears, flagging sound…

Neck, how delicate!

To tousled back.

Shanks, spindled

Into woolly shins!

TO ANN AND ANDRE (in Bowen)

 You made us welcome

In Your Eden... amid the brush

The ancient birch ... & young spruce,

Caressed by the scent of lumber.

The hum of wings....

Contented natural things

Rubbing... sawing ... singing...

Throughout the livelong

Summer's day.

And ah...those nights!

How bright with myriad lights...

O'erhead ... the arching sky

Velvety black with

A million Pinpricks &

Scored by shooting stars!

THE INNOCENT RAILWAY

 Hush!

Enter and tiptoe here, A springtime nest

Where nestling rests By suckling soothed.

Oh Sacred spot!

Where life's circle

Well established,

Runs smoothly...

On .......

into Eternity.

THE INVENTORY

Cairnie Cottage in the ‘80’s

The Wedding gift

Formed by rough hands

More used to plough

& shear than saw & plane.

Two lucky horse shoes

On brown velvet

Set in hearts of wood,

Shaped for lovely Mary

A young fifty, by brothers

Losing her to Sydney

                The seaman.

The round loom

An iron cartwheel

Full five feet wide! Ciree's Strange web. Disc warp, c~ Tinted, min-washed.

Circe’s strange web.

Disc warp crottal

Tinted, rain-washed,

*Circe – Ulysses’s enchantress.

(The Odyssey, an ancient Greek epic)

This loom weaves a circular mat.

Like a spiders web

The warp radiating from its centre.

JOURNEY'S END

 In dappled light

The dusty track

Dips and curves

Conjuring

The rustic scene .....

Bonneted shepherdess,

Bunched flock,

Pausing timeless

By hedged and

Herbed border.

The Round Table

 An heirloom,

Round, mahogany

Deep red.

A century of

Last suppers,

Feasts shared.

Tales told.

More to tell

Than time

To tell them in!

Games

 Games;

Puzzle & tease

Raise laughter,

Prompt passions

Envy, generosity

Breed queens and harpies,

Kings and knaves,

Who surprise with skill

Or skulduggery!

The Piano

 Waiting anxiously

Wedding gowned,

She throws around

Clusters of notes.

A gift-to be

Striven with,

Disciplined by....

Solo, Duo,

Quartet Quintet

Quintessential beauty!

&

Scratched graffiti

 'I CAN PLAY!

The Rag Rug

 Rag rug,

Torn into strips ... raw

Ends sewn together..

Red, blue, black,

Purple, pink!

Thank God for warp!

On this….. tattered

Weft is laid.

Here... comfort, warmth

 & beauty grow.

‘MADONNA AND CHILD’

On glimpsing the Bellini

in Archie's study

Feed!

Sweet child

From the ready breast,

Responsive

To thy tender need.

Know!

Wise child .... thy ear

Against the beating heart

That subdues or quickens,

Responding to thee …

           Thy first knowing.

Lean!

Straight child

Thou leanest

Against the frame

That bore thee.

Run!

Brave child

Fly like the dove

From the firm ark

Of thy beginnings!

THE SEASONS OF '98

Winter, Spring & Summer, Advent.

 The past, squeezing my hand

In passing,

Left .....

While new life Stumbled and fell.

Then gathering strength,

She sang a triple lullaby

Against life's sweet crescendo...

While warm winds gathered

Love, laughter and beauty

In celebration and ritual.

A radiant moon

Her gossamer beams

Suffuse with snow

An Advent world…..

Glowing with fragile purity ….

Light and shadow

Incarnate.