summer | Mercury Ascends

Poem: The Garth

Posted on 21 Days Ago by Leofwine Tanner

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

The accolades like garlands
all around you,
each flower of the palette
in your soul

I saw suns glint in violet eyes,
such rare colour,
your rose petal smiles
on dew laden sward

You drew me pastel people,
tore them to pieces,
casting high like confetti
in a lavender breeze

Your delicate hand would
demand I take it,
frog march me around
your patchwork garth

We’d sit in white stillness
at Indian summer’s end,
our toes dangling in pools
of murky green

And when the grey winds came
soughing demons around us,
you closed that rickety gate
toward Michaelmastide.

copyright Francis Barker 2019

Tanka: The Best Time

Posted on August 9 by Leofwine Tanner

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

It was the best time
Endless summers before school
just mum, cat and me
Our art of simply being
beat the toil of becoming

copyright Francis Barker 2019

Days of Innocence and Eternity

Posted on May 8 by Leofwine Tanner

beach

Summer is not far away, fickle though it may be in England’s northerly reaches.

To us as children the good days were glorious; down at the beach the sun was our friend, the sea and sand our playmates through the days which would last forever. Eternity was within our reach – then.

In reality nothing much has changed, only our perception of reality.

paintings by Francis Barker

Keck, Cow Parsley, Anthriscus sylvestris

Posted on May 28, 2016 by Leofwine Tanner

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.

keck2

words and pictures ©copyright rp 2016

Au Revoir Summer?

Posted on May 11, 2016 by Leofwine Tanner

wet1

Summer doesn’t officially begin until June 1, or June 21 with the Summer Solstice, according to some.

But a few warm days in early May lulls you into that typical false sense of security, leaves you thinking summer may have come early.

Then, of course, the heavens opened and May returned to its usual, not entirely unexpected mixed bag of meteorological mayhem.

wet2

And that’s just it, the downpour reminded me of many previous Mays, and by all accounts the temperatures will be almost back down to single figures by the weekend. This is a normal May.

Great.

That’s why I said ‘Au Revoir’ at the start. So, like the French might optimistically put it, until we meet again, dear summer…

Here’s hoping.

wet3

Poem: Summer Coming In

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Leofwine Tanner

Spring finally comes, like your
warm breath on my
desiccate skin. So then
sing to me of careless summers,
your smile, where
love begins

Poem: ‘August in Yesteryear’

Posted on August 18, 2012 by Leofwine Tanner

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Summer was once ices poles and living
on bikes; we were free like swifts
screaming circles in the air. Greens
were for football and teams twenty a side,
roads for playing cricket, where cars
were stalling aberrations. We lay
on lawns watching clouds, minds unfettered
in those zenith blues; guilt
and care belonged to
some other world and school
might well have been
beyond the moon.

Only later came guitars with boys’ awakenings;
serenading neighbours
sunbathing in the yard, or the shock
of full moons rising late in the day. We really
thought we had credence, like southern
Skynyrd boys, singing in that
sultry heat with school coming at us
like banks of cloud, the football season
begun and cricket nearing its end,
watching shadows gathering
where the sun once shone

The accolades like garlands all around you, each flower of the palette in your soul

I saw suns glint in violet eyes, such rare colour, your rose petal smiles on dew laden sward

You drew me pastel people, tore them to pieces, casting high like confetti in a lavender breeze

Your delicate hand would demand I take it, frog march me around your patchwork garth

We’d sit in white stillness at Indian summer’s end, our toes dangling in pools of murky green

And when the grey winds came soughing demons around us, you closed that rickety gate toward Michaelmastide.

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It was the best time Endless summers before school just mum, cat and me Our art of simply being beat the toil of becoming

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The accolades like garlands
all around you,
each flower of the palette
in your soul

I saw suns glint in violet eyes,
such rare colour,
your rose petal smiles
on dew laden sward

You drew me pastel people,
tore them to pieces,
casting high like confetti
in a lavender breeze

Your delicate hand would
demand I take it,
frog march me around
your patchwork garth

We’d sit in white stillness
at Indian summer’s end,
our toes dangling in pools
of murky green

And when the grey winds came
soughing demons around us,
you closed that rickety gate
toward Michaelmastide.

It was the best time
Endless summers before school
just mum, cat and me
Our art of simply being
beat the toil of becoming