From here I’ve seen
thousands of suns,
the days end with copper glints
through languorous trees. Summer’s
apogee is seed of summer’s end, sure
as swifts scream out the balm of night.
A fast-forward pipistrelle delays
the drawing curtains, ever
thankful for the light.
On the windowsill the sphinxing cat
sleeps, pointing
the way to live
Poem and picture ©copyright rp 2016
Where I grew up, which was once part of the Danelaw, we called it ‘keck’, a common name for cow parsley; some call it wild chervil, or even Queen Anne’s Lace. Well, it sounds like an ancient Norse word, but it could equally be good old Old English. Either way, it is characteristic of this time of year, as spring turns into summer.
words and pictures ©copyright rp 2016
Nature will provide
There’s enough for you and me
Riches all around
haiku and images ©copyright rp 2016
The other day I had cause
to open your wardrobe and shoes
fell out like maggots
from a corpse.
New shoes
old shoes
blue shoes
broken shoes.
A pair for every day of the year
it seemed.
Try as I might
I couldn’t get them all back, for
I don’t have your gift
for packing or hoarding. So I
put some in my wardrobe
because I don’t buy any shoes.
poem and image ©copyright rp 2016
Providence recently took me to Flag Fen, a three and half thousand year old Bronze Age site in eastern England. What began in a field several decades ago with the discovery of timbers from an ancient causeway, has now transformed into one of the most significant archaeological sites of its kind in Europe.
Flag Fen lies at the fen edge, where the flat lands of the south and east meet with the higher ground to the west. It would have been a rich, much sought after environment then, one the most abundant in Britain at the time.
In those days the fenlands afforded a welcome bounty, an alternative to the interminable forests which had still not been extensively cleared. There would be fishing and fowling in the winter; in the summer as the water levels dropped, massive areas of pasture became available for sheep and cattle to graze on.
I’d been to Flag Fen before…
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A light held aloft
nature’s path to liberty
treasure in a field
words and picture ©copyright rp 2016
A favourite old Authorised King James Version Bible can be an interesting subject of study. This is from school days, leather satchels and shorts.
© image copyright rp 2016
