Austere beauty
A pale, white moor
Edges all softened
Clear air, silence,
stillness,
I'm crying with the cold
Wheels humming
Through a crystal frost
A raven whispers
High above.
My moorland oak
In glitter decked
Rising out of
Hardened ground
All her work
Under the surface
Unseen,
I reach out to say hello.
A blue sky full of absence
But skylarks are singing
In my racing heart.
#CoSopoetry

Bewildered,
At the beauty of it all
Klimts palette
Gold and crimson
Paints the skies
Spilling over
the rosy-lilac snowfields
Soft sighing north wind
Sings oh so cold
Ah, the Robin sings his orison
To the failing, crooked moon
Sailing high and silver
in cerulean blue.
#CoSopoetry

In the grip of winter
Snow has fallen
Footprints
In the garden
The midnight dances
Of racing hares
On little tiptoes
tripping lightly
And the stately prowl
Of fox
Little owls
On the wall
Looking to a pristine,
frozen land
My hands are cold
As I climb my rutted road
To the winter moor
Amber and white
In silver sunlight.
#CoSopoetry

What wonders
As the kestrel hovers
Hanging still
Before the silver moon
It's cold
Frost lights the meadow
With a shimmering white
And the valleys
Caressed by fallen cloud
Lit by the love of bright starlight
Shining.
A sun dog spectrum
Sits to the heel of the sun
And warns of the storms to come
I have the sun and the moon
On my shoulder
All that is missing
On this crystal morning
Is the stars
But they are safe enough
in my heart.
#CoSopoetry

Look at the sky, my love
And tell me
there is no beauty in the world
The first words of daylight
Written in crimson
Changing with each tick
Of the mighty wren
At each turn of the wheel
The alchemist works
Turning blood red sky
To gold and silver.
Peace on the mountain
Where a doe leaps joyful
Into the golden morning
Tinkling music
Goldfinches glitter
Tinkling their music
Beside quick-trickling streams
Glassy ice on silver water
Dreams.
#CoSopoetry

Dreich
A drenching,
bone soaking mizzle
Drip-dropping down the back cold,
Misty eyed with misty tears
And a face full of mud
Grit in my teeth
Grating
as I grimace down the hill
And there you are, my love
Dark eyes shining
As you turn and run like water
Over the golden gorse
Both shining like the sun
Like the only light
In my universe
#CoSopoetry

Always two magpies
At the top of the hill
Even in the cold
of a late autumn mist
In the uncertainty of it all
They are there
Sometimes together
Often apart
Bound together
In love.
I'm a little bit lost
On this misty moor
My landmarks are hidden
And all my horizons
Too close at hand
My world seems smaller
And then I notice
The moss on the walls
Sparkling with mist-dew
Showing me
the way to joy.
#CoSopoetry

A hunters light
Clear air from the north
The sky blue, bright
Like heaven
Cloudless,
But for the misty blanket
Resting on the knoll.
Shaped like a heart and
Shining like stardust
Woodpigeons rise
In dozens
Bring their fear to tumult
As the low hawk twists
His slate blue back
And chestnut breast
shines like darkness
in the slanting sun
Shatters the peace
Of this crystal morning
With electric ease.
#CoSopoetry

I'm back where I belong
And my heart is full
In the gentle embrace
Of my little world
The sun is shining
She smiles at me
Through golden mist
And sends me gifts
A raven overhead
Her low tones
A reassurance
Deer are dancing
Through the crystal meadow
The air about them
Twinkles as they move
A soft, forgiving light
And the dance goes on
Down to the woods
Where they wait
For the dogs of day
To pass.
#CoSopoetry

Out into the rosy gold
Of a late Autumn morning
The sky a vivid glory
The colours of the temeraire
Ravens overhead,
little clouds of pipits
Goldfinch glitter in the thistles
By the silver water
Hushing from its bed
I can hear you breathing
Before I see you
Stirring from the bracken
A gentle plume of breathy air
And you're there
At eyes-meet
We greet each other meekly
And then away
Like love
Like air on an eagle's back
You fly across the moor
With ease.
#CoSopoetry

There's a song in my heart
Even though its raining
And I'm carrying brightness
And all of the darkness
My heart is heavy
And light
The walls and the woods
And the silver stream
Winding through
Like a thread of joy
Tinkling down
from the miry bog
Two does and their buck
Move over the furze
With a soft glow
Slowly, even their leaps
Are gently flowing
Noiseless whispers
Ah, I've found you
In the scent of the mountains
And the breath of the breeze.
#CoSopoetry

The hills are shrouded,
their tops hidden
their wooded valleys
full of thrushes
and little birds calling
Flocks of finches
Little gatherings
of blue tits,
Long tailed tits
whispering softly
Like little lovers
Into little ears.
The essence of mist
Without the mist
My white road
Leading to a white horizon
A white sky above
The green hills are pale
Deer on the moss
Leap like salmon
Over the weir
And a woodpecker
In looping flight
A vivid music
In black and white
#CoSopoetry

Winter
And I'm smiling
There's a song in my heart
The winter thrushes have arrived
Fieldfare and Redwing
Raiding the crimson hawthorn
And ruby rowan
Filling a white heaven
In loose array
Like dark constellations
I can see
The dipping Plough
Casseopeia,
And glorious Orion,
Just over the shoulder
Of my most beautiful hill
#CoSopoetry

I yearn for space
For brightness
For wide open vistas
For the sort of day
When I could see
for days ahead.
Today, just one turn
of the wheel at a time.
Our hearts are troubled
And I feel a bit lost
In this smothering fog
There are times
When I think
That all the walls are falling
And then I remember love
And how we find it
In the ruins and the rubble
Bright and shining
Like a poppy dancing
In the breeze.
#CoSopoetry

My only hope
Is to make today a better day
Yesterday's mist is clearing
But the world looks paler now
Uncertain.
The owls know
They are hunting together
At the end of the field
Down where the bluebells
Dusted the meadow
in indigo spring
When love tripped dancing
Through the birches
And sunlight dazzled
Through earliest green.
Patience, they wait on the wall
as the world takes another breath
How many insults to love
Can we take
Before love wins?
#CoSopoetry

Up into the owl-light
Half-bright day-night
Of a misty autumn Tuesday
The chestnut kestrel
has left her tower
To stoop upon her prey
Away she hies
I might have lost her
In her fearful white sky
I'm riding in a dream
Where dark crows
Reflect the mist in silver
And startled pheasants leap
To wake me
from my sleepy reverie
I want the softness of the fog
To wrap me up
And hold me
In my dream.
#CoSopoetry

The stillness and quiet
Loud in my ears
I notice every single sound
Each seems magnified
To gentle tumult
Suddenly
A murmuration
Of a thousand starlings
Tumbling out of the mist
Under the gaze
Of a hunting hawk
And there you are
My beautiful doe
On your high, high hill
In your lovely silhouette
Alert and watchful
So far away
But with me still.
#CoSopoetry

We are forged in the furnace
And tempered by frost
And the mists that rise
At our annealing
Are love.
We can be lost in love
And found.
Everything is connected
As the lightning to the ground
Without these clouds
The sky could not sing
I saw my love this morning
She flew to me
Out of the gloaming day
Her stern face questioning
As she flew with me
And then she turned away
But now I believe
that she's still there
And she will find
her own way back.
#CoSopoetry

White hills looming
Tinted by the misty drizzle
Swirling gently down
from a still, white sky
Like soft breath
Soothing me
Hushing by my ear
A whisper
There's a kingdom
of bright mushrooms
In the green field shining
Reds and yellow
Golden brown
There was dancing last night
In this little hollow
I can see the shapes
Of jigs and reels
In the damp grass
Dancing
And I wish that i could follow
To the rainbows end.
#CoSopoetry

A wild edge to the westerly
Weather for crows
and screaming gulls
As I labour on, buffeted
by the turbulence
That is their joy.
Theirs is the beauty
On a day like today
When they find their place
At the top of the order
Revelling in flow
As more beautiful birds
Hide quiet in low bushes
This wind would stir
The mighty ocean
Even the amber moor
Is moving under its spell
Hushing waves
Hissing through the rushes
Like the roaring tide
On shingle.
#CoSopoetry