Clendish Wood

I have caught a moment

I am lifted in the gravity of time

In Clendish Wood.

The trees here breathe in the wind

Right deep into their diaphragms.

A symphony of birds chatting, having a barny,

Whistling sweet nothings through the trees.

A wood and a motorway, parallel,

And though there’s no drowning out

The drones – human and machine –

I chose where I place my focus.

Their sounds will not diminish you.

The wood keeps me here like a womb

And the trees close behind me like Harry

When he enters the maze - the fear,

Yes, but also the possibility, the drive.

The brances swirl in the breeze like

Perfect paintstrokes designing the sky

And two walls of bright white blossom

Steer my way, caging me in like

The sweetest of kidnaps.

Sticky weed, remember that?

I wonder why Nature makes me cry.

It’s relief, it’s remembrance, it’s engrained

In our cells since the beginning. This

Is where we’re meant to be. This

Is who we are. Well –

I will water the wildness.

The sunlight through the moving trees

Flashes like a mirrorball all around,

While leaves parachute their way to the ground

With speed and courage and the wood

Catch them gracefully and gratefully.

And there’s always a rustle without a being,

No matter how hard you look. The holly has

Turned brown and crisp and lost

Any prickly status, clinging to it’s mother

For dear life, positively soft. There’s the

Path, I have to go. I can't stay here forever.

So with a sodden leaf-laden heart, I go on,
Until the next time, and start the day.