The scents of a mild July
Fill the woodland air.
There has been a heavy downpour.
I know there
Will be more
Rain to soak the dry
Earth here in the UK.
While elsewhere
People die
In the blistering sun.
Today, it is not the UK.
But another heatwave will surely come
And we will pray
For the rain again.
The autumn
Used to bring fallen leaves
While the springtime
Brought flowers.
Now I rhyme
Of confusion
and the illusion of progress.
But man’s hour?
I know not
When his clock may stop.
A couple of days ago, I published a poem entitled “Man” https://kmorrispoet.com/2023/07/14/man/. Below is a slightly amended and extended version of that poem:
I know that these trees
Are Older than man
And the church
Which so many men pass
Without a glance
Or a sigh
As they hurry by.
The nettles flourished in the rain.
When I came there again
Men had removed them.
Civilisation came.
Nettles and rain
Remain.
A poet entranced
By branches that dance
In summertime.
Lost in rhyme
he walks the same
Woodland path
After sweet rain.
Nature laughs
As branches pour
Forth their store
Of sweet summer rain
I open my window
And let in his cry
With the chill night air.
He is out there
Somewhere in the dark park,
Or the churchyard nearby.
I closed my
Window against the chill air.
He remained there,
(For how long I
Can not say).
Then his cry
Seemed to fade away.
I yawn
In the early morn.
A bark
Pierces the dark.
The carpet is warm
Against my bare
Feet. While out there
The fox’s word
Is heard
Ere I sleep.
| On leaving
The half-empty pub On a spring Evening, I heard birdsong. I love These chill Nights , when the trill Of birds is heard On the still Street. Their unconscious art Calls to my sad Glad heart. It was always so. And I know Their song will remain Until I gain The churchyard path Where all must pass.
|
These trees
Speak to me
Of mortality.
Touching old bark
And cold gravestone,
I hark
To the birds
Still heard
By me.
I recall the nesting box
On my grandfather’s shed.
Blue Tits laid their eggs.
Some grew, and flew
Away.
January seems dead.
Yet, in the churchyard birds
Sing.
And, come the spring
Birds will lay in boxes
To the delight
Of young children.
And foxes bark
In the depths of night.
Listening to rain
While reading poetry.
But why read poetry
When there is rain?
For there is poetry
In the rain.
—
Reading Clare
While listening to rain.
But why read Clare
For there
Is poetry in rain?
(The above is 2 versions of the same, maybe similar poem. The poem flows from me listening to the rain through my open bedroom window yesterday evening, while reading the poetry of John Clare).
K Morris - Poet 