THE SWIFT

 

The familiar forked tail

And crescent wing

Of the agile Swift in sky

Performing aerobatics

Above the fields of gold

So pleasing to the eye

IN THE SUMMER FOREST

 

In the summer forest

I stared into the silent waters

Of the mirrored pool

It was a place spoken oft in lore

An eerie haunted place

The stillest place I’d known

To stand too long

Appreciating its tranquillity

Could cost you your soul

There were no fish

To break the surface

No insect ventured near

Bird song fell silent at its edge

And no creature quenched its thirst

No one knew if its waters were deep

Or merely murky shallows

It was not an inviting place

But if you stared too long

Into its mesmeric shadows

You would not tell the tale

 

THE AIR WAS SULTRY AND STALE

 

The air was sultry and stale

The heat oppressive

I sought the sanctity of the shade

Embracing its coolness

I walked beneath the leafy canopy

Where the silence welcomed

Contented I walked

In the leafy summer forest

Until within a glade

I came upon a woodland pool
It’s still dark waters

Looking glass flat.

I peered through my own reflection

Into the charismatic depths

And felt unnervingly as if

I were staring into the depths

Of my own soul

And for the first time

On that sultry summers afternoon

My skin felt cold

IN SPRINGTIME

 

In springtime

I walk in dappled shade

Down along

A woodland brook

Where Narcissi grow

And bow their heads

In deference

To the singing stream

WISPS OF WHITE

 

Wisps of White

Decorate the azure blue

Like absent minded stokes

Of an artist’s brush

While the sunbathes the land

With its benevolence

THE PIERCING OF THE WIND

 

The piercing of the wind

Iced like the mountain peaks

Brought water to my eyes

And a stinging to my cheeks

It left hands too cold to grip

And lips to numb to speak

It cut through my cloak

And made the outlook bleak

A BUMBLE BEE BUSIES

 

A bumble bee busies

A Butterfly rises and dips 

And there amid velvet petals

A single hummingbird sips