November ’09

Rookery

Crackling with rooks,
Winter trees reverberate
with ragged, black fruit.

(31/11/09)

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Phew! Wild winds, deep, torrential floods, brief gaps of white sunlight glittering off the pools and wet everything. All-powerful Winter.

Symphony

Chimneys thrum rhythm,
the roof tiles tattoo the beat,
wires pluck harmonics,

every gap sings out,
the whole house is becoming
a wind instrument.

(23/11/09)

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Crazy weather for weeks. Regular, heavy rain interspersed by capricious winds. Garden furniture flung around the lawns by polter-gusts, flagstones slick with unseen mosses, trees stripped and battered. Cows stand, arse to ditch. Clothes hang, heavy-limbed on a drooping, dripping line.

Towels, shirts, trousers
hang, sodden and un-moving
hours and hours on end.

Sudden excitement!
The wind whips up a frenzy,
flailing arms and legs.

The wild dance short-lived,
shirts darkening like the sky,
tails down, rain stops play.

(16/11/09)

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Windy day. November

In the yard’s eddy,
rattling leaves play chasing,
reliving their youth.

(09/11/09)

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The month has begun as the old one ended, misty and wet. Winter’s here now but it’s still mild – a little colder, granted, but not bad.

November mist

Colour-draining fog
opalesces the hillside.
Life in a snow globe.

Throaty corvid cry
and lesser sounds of small birds
emphasise the mist.

(01/11/09)

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