What joy there is
To be found in the mist
In the unexpected moments.
The stonechats were with me
Talking me through it
If only I had listened.
The golden hare
Always alert
Watching out for me
If only I had noticed
The Kestrel was always minding me
From a distance.
I knew that.
And the hill
Which I thought was in my way,
Was the whole point.
2/
#CoSopoetry

There's a wildness to the air
A raw edge and damp
Both ends of a rainbow
Clear as crystal, shining bright
A beginning, an ending
And an invitation.
Up here, on the other side
I'm in clearer air
And I can see it now
For what it was.
1/
#CoSopoetry

A white sun glimmering
through grey cloud
Brightening white clover
Summer snow
Little flocks of
Meadow pipits
Charms of finches
Tinkling.
A furtive Snipe
Snug in the verge
Zigzags away
At eyes-meet.
A rumble of wind
Spins the mills
Lapwings and Curlew
Gone from the hills
They've followed the sun
To the west
#CoSopoetry

Young Kestrels calling
Testing their wings
Turning circles
Over the wood.
Leaving home
Returning.
A hurried fluttering
Of twisted Ringlets
Rising together to
Settle upon lilac thistle-tops.
A pale half moon
Hangs high over Stoodley
I wait and watch
Swallows and white clouds
sailing by
I feel like I'm falling
Into the sky
#CoSopoetry

Last night's rain
Meadowsweet scented
A Raven pair
Soar together
Touching wings
Bright and shining
Filling the air
With Raven song.
High on the hill
Where no-one can see
Three hares are dancing
Over the green
They are dancing a reel
To the Raven's song
Joyful and free
The dancing three
Dancing me
Into the morning
#CoSopoetry

Away, away over the mead
I will follow where you lead
Take me to the fairy dell
Find for me a wishing well
Leave me for dead, race away
Return again for me some day
And we will run away together
Up the hill, across the heather
We'll find the point of no return
The edge, the edge, the ends of earth
The place where sky meets land meets sea
The place where sleepy dreams awake
And we will fly like eagles soaring
Into this glorious summer morning
2/2
#CoSopoetry

A new chapter
A fairytale
High summer
All blue and lilacs
Cranesbill,
Gentle scabious, tall thistle
Little clouds of
Small blue butterflies
Utterly beautiful
Fluttering, as Harebells tinkle,
Sounding all the colours of the sky
A second flush of cotton blows
Across the golden carpet
on the moss
The soft breeze unsettles
A sighing sycamore
Who casts her spell
And my mystic friend
My stone hare
Springs to life
Races with me
Running like the water
1/2
#CoSopoetry

Beautiful
A soft southerly
Ringlets spiral
over ripening bilberry
Painted ladies flutter
Around tall foxglove towers
Fragrance of woodbine
Winding its sweetness
Through twisted hawthorn
And my moorland oak
Shines green
Bitter wormwood
Bruised by my wheels
As I follow a Swallow
Into the sun
#CoSopoetry

It was early, early
On a summer's day
The sky hung dark and low
Peace was still and silent
The mills were hidden.
She mets me at the bend
Lithe, alert
Waiting for me.
She leads me down
Along the way
A mile or more
Along the track,
And as I watch
She meets her love
And they are dancing
On the lawn
Utterly themselves
In the grey dawn
#CoSopoetry

I don't know
If she knows
That she shines,
Glowing,
The way she does
In the dappled sunlight
Of a July morning.
There are dark clouds
Over the dark peak
Where I once stood.
It's still raining
over there.
But here it's bright
And the moor is beautiful
Dressed in mauve
And purple shades.
Life goes on
And good things happen.
#CoSopoetry

An edge to the breeze
By the woods, the trees
Roar like bears, awoken
By their howling.
Maple, ash and sturdy chestnuts
Lose their leaves
All chasing in the swirling.
Though all is green
This is October weather
From the showery west
Time gallops away
Like a high horse
in clover.
No Curlew today
No sound but the wind.
The absent Lapwings
Need the peace
of lower ground.
#CoSopoetry

Golden towers
Of yellow loosestrife
Meadow pea
buttercups, and
Tall purple thistles
Rusty dock and
Spires of white foxglove
The blue grass is high
in the green meadow
Dozens of Lapwing
Dancing in their sheen
Under the arc
of a misty rainbow
All bound together
By radiant light
#CoSopoetry

A Lapwing calls
To her three little graces
Mirth, to make me glad
Makes me smile in the morning
Elegance, admiring
the swirl of her crest
Beauty, the sheen of her coat
Royal purple,
and the deepest green
Of sublime serene.
The Maple is in full leaf now
On the edge of the windy meadow
Roars softly in the breeze
The sound of the ocean
Swallows are seqrching
Twisting and turning
In its gentle shadow
#CoSopoetry

Dark skies
Heavy rain
Crows flock westwards
Into the wind
Follow the night
To the edge of the sky
White Heron, bright,
Blown in the breeze
Asks me a question,
This way or that?
Swallows flit, black as bats
Under the dripping trees
There's a drizzly mist
Over the moss
Where deer leap
free and easy
And Athena surveys
All their love and their loss
from the little hole in her wall
#CoSopoetry

My heart is in the heathlands
In its stubbornness and peat
Where the brave larks are singing in the breeze
Where wild owls fly in the moon low sky
And the stone hare stares with her amber eye
And the soft wind is rustling the reeds

So lay me down in heather
Dressed in bog-soft cotton
Wind me up in willow from the fen
Where high snipe are drumming
And the Curlews are lamenting
And I will be a heathen once again
#CoSopoetry

The scratched out chanting
Of a warbler in the reed bed
I'm lost in his music
For a little while
Finding beauty in his song
That is softened by the waters
that whisper through the rushes
In the deep quarry pit.
The mist has gone, the sky is clear
Air is bright and ringing
Down by the bridge
The dark river sings
And the Elder, by the Alders
And the half dead Ash tree
Lightly scents the gentle breeze
With sweet perfume
#CoSopoetry

Green of the deep wood
Dark-shaded and wholesome
Green of the high hills
Heathered and bright
Where high Swifts are screaming
With screams of delight
Green of the meadow
Sweet-scented with meadowsweet
Where riotous Swallows
Twist and skim over
Ox-eyed daisies
Look to the grey skies
Searching for sunshine
Brightening my day
With a bright daisy smile.
#CoSopoetry

Beautiful you,
Brighten the gloom,
Chase away
The dark, damp grey
Your steadfast gaze
Searching for lost souls
Wandering the wild grounds.
Gently caressing
The softest of air
With the lightest touch
Silent, burning white
Electrifying, charged
Like the space in the air
Before the music starts
The world holds its breath
As you pass by
Like a paradise bird
From a different place
Not here, not now.
#CoSopoetry

My spectral friend
Lights a dark sky
With seven colours
A portal to the wonders
All the way
From Sleepy Lowe
To the Mist stone
And the Curlew rises
Close to me
Calling wild and high
And the hare rises
From the green
Wild amber in her eye
And irises blow
in the warm west wind
In prayers of blue and gold
#CoSopoetry

The world holds its breath
And thunder roars
And the lightning erupts
On a tumultuous city
Where wrongs have made
a beautiful right.
There's a hole in the ground
Where the books might be saved
And a hole in the sky
where a mother and her son
Sit dark in their marble
And bright in their love
and all of their loss
By the Brandenburg gate
Shining green
under the linden light
#CoSopoetry