Poem ‘Daffodil Heaven’

art, digital art, english, landscape painting, oil painting, painting, poetry 1 Minute

Daffodil Heaven

When March was still and new
before I was of an age to care
we’d visit the fields across the way
where she’d earn some more pennies
in that cool primavera air

Here I would watch her
peeping from between deep rows
where lingering water drained
like instant coffee in footprint pools
only recently covered with snow

With an abattoir efficiency
she’d pluck off each clean head
sometimes pause for a smoke
stand straight to feel her back
or maybe tick me off instead

To the sound of mellow bells
we’d walk home for biscuits and tea
when I’d hear her cutting vegetables
leaving me with a comic
a ginger cat curled up on my knee

© poem and image copyright dfbarker 2012

Not seasonal, I know, but it’s nice to think of the spring.

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40 thoughts on “Poem ‘Daffodil Heaven’”

  2. There’s much to like in these few words, but I kept coming back to this passage: where lingering water drained
    like instant coffee in footprint pools
    only recently covered with snow

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  3. I love this because it’s so full of movement and life. I think some painters try too hard to be so precise that they don’t put life into their works, but yours are seriously alive. Kudos
    I also love the poem – fond childhood memories are just the best, beautiffuly relayed. 🙂

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  6. David,

    What an absolutely delightful poem for me to come back to!!

    The word that springs to mind is “cosy”. Those lovely memories of childhood which I can relate to are so strong in this poem, especially in the last stanza – it’s just so, so lovely!!

    And I love the lines “drained like instant coffee…recently covered with snow – such a vivid image. This is a wonderful poem and is complemented beautifully by the painting.

    Christine

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  7. Thank you! Yes, I think in those days instant coffee might have been a new thing, but this is an actual memory. Mum was a nurse but we were poor, so she’d ‘earn a few more pennies’ helping out a local farmer. And yes, local people did that work then!
    The soil where I live is very silty, so when water drains from it, you get that kind of froth, just like instant coffee – to my mind at least.
    Thank you again!

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  10. Christine, thank you! Glad to see you back and hope things are improving.
    Thank you for the comments, I very much appreciate them. Yes, I can remember this vividly, I must have been pre-school. Mum was a nurse but she did other work as well, and local people could work on the land back then! She had to take me with her, so I literally sat between the rows for an hour or two. Yes, a time of innocence.
    All the very best to Christine! Thank you.

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  11. Hi David,

    This is a lovely painting, again reminding me of my own country, and I also love the poem. Being with flowers makes us happier I think. 🙂

    Ina

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  12. Hi Ina, thank you! Yes, south Lincolnshire is very much like Holland, and of course, my part of Lincolnshire was traditionally called ‘Holland’. When I was growing up, there used to be fields of tulips as well as daffodils but you hardly ever see tulips now.
    Thank you!

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  13. I was so mesmerized with the beauty of the painting… took me some time before I scrolled down to read the poem…what really touched me was the honesty in every word… its such a beauty…

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  18. Hi,
    A lovely poem, I smiled when I read the ending of the verse:
    “or maybe tick me off instead” 🙂

    I love the painting as well, the colours are magnificent.

    Like

  22. A lovely cozy yet honest (‘…maybe tick me off…) reflection of times passed. A beautiful tribute to your mother. You have such a fine touch with the brush and the pen, David!

    Like

  23. Such a warm and lovely painting! Daffodils are the flowers of my birth month March, besides that when they blossom spring is around the corner.
    A tender memory of your Mom the poem is a delight for me as a Mother.
    smiles,
    Rx

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  27. Bless you, D.F. for so beautifully reminding me, in verse and in painting, of pre-spring walks on sunny days with any of my female adult relatives “way back when” in Mississippi! Daffodils are opening their buds by my front walk as I type this comment!

    Like

  28. oh yes…nice to think of spring…thanks for writing it up for us…can almost smell it…loved the instant coffee in footprint pools and the whole atmosphere..

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  29. Granbee, thank you! Daffodils already? I’m envious. But then you’re ‘South’! Here in deepest Lincolnshire, England, well, winter’s probably hardly begun!
    Thank you again.

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  35. Beautiful, David. I absolutely love “With an abattoir efficiency/
    she’d pluck off each clean head” – such a wonderful image. You really are a fantastic poet!

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  38. Spring is a wonderful season, so I can understand why you want to think of it! 🙂

    I would love a daffodil heaven. That would be, well, heavenly. 😀

    As usual, wonderful painting. And of course, a lovely light poem to go aling with it.

    Like

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