For dverse, a quadrille—a poem of exactly 44 words.
Some places are always grey
In memory, veiled in cloud,
Drizzle mists with heartless spray
Sodden hills, a sullen shroud.
Yet these hills are glorious green,
And yellow gorse beside the stream,
Closer to heaven never seen,
For this is home, beyond the dream.
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I love this. Reminds me of my home.
Thank you, Rae 🙂
Deep sigh – lovely, lovely poem!
Thank you, Jilly!
Seems like a tribute to my WA state–gray/grey, dark with heavy bellied clouds–yet when the sun splashes break through the swiss cheese cumulus, beauty swells up like toadstools between drizzles.
You can’t have the green without the grey rain 🙂
I was admiring yellow gorse on my way to and from Cardiff over the weekend – it reminds me of my childhood when my parents lived a Burgh Heath and my grandmother took me to visit them.
I love gorse, whin or whatever you call it where you live. It’s a northern thing, such a part of our landscapes.
I really enjoyed the gorgeous flow of this and the contrasts you painted for us. Lovely!
Thank you, Mish! Home is like that, I suppose 🙂
Such a vivid contrasts between the first and second stanza ~ I believe that the mind frames our external views, either with greyness or brightness ~ I love that glorious green of nature ~
Thanks Grace 🙂 Memories are hard to uproot, even when they only show part of the picture. It’s good to refocus and remember the other brighter aspects.
Nice meter and rhyme and praise of home which is always closer to heaven if the home has heart. I had to look up “gorse”. I’ve heard it before, but figured I might as well find out what it means. I assume it’s a kind of legume.
Thanks Frank 🙂 Gorse is a yellow flowering shrub that grows on poor soil, near the sea or on heathland and mountains. It has a sweet scent and is evocative of northern landscapes.
I echo what Grace said about the contrasts in the two stanzas. It makes the whole thing more whole. yin to the yang.
Thanks Paul 🙂 Home is never without mixed feelings. It contains a whole world with all that that implies.
This is very peaceful. The imagery is just wonderful.
Thanks so much, Linda. I’m pleased you like it 🙂
Took me to England in Springtime as I first saw it. Made me homesick for the home that isn’t mine but heart-adopted. I love it so and yet..not there but here where my life is. Beautiful, crisp and terse poetry that gets everything in focus.
Thank you! Funny isn’t it how we can be homesick for a place that isn’t home and never was? It’s as though the heart has its own yearnings.
Nicely written.
Thank you 🙂
I like the way you changed gears. And with only 44 words it worked very well!
Thank you! Home is full of mixed emotions, never simply grey or green 🙂
Even though there was a place of grey, there was still a home in shades of green. Life sometimes takes the form of different hues.
True. And the trick is to be able to see something beautiful in all of them.
contrasting feelings…it takes one in…whatever may be, home is always home…beautiful!
Thank you, Sreeja! Even the drizzle is beautiful when it produces the green grass.
This is lovely, Jane. It is true that we have memories shrouded in grey and other places that seem ever green.
Thanks Merril 🙂 Memory isn’t trustworthy. At best, it’s selective 🙂
Jane this is my most favourite of your stunning poetry! Reminds me of Yeats in the way it rose and flowed.
Ah now that comparison is just about the biggest compliment you could pay me! Thank you!
it was honest and from the heart
Which is why it’s so important 🙂
Beautiful verse, and picture too.
Thank you!
I like your contrasting stanzas, shadowing and reflecting each other. You can’t have the green without the rain, of course. Good to be reminded of that sometimes.
Thanks Sarah 🙂 That’s perfectly true. A bit of rain never did anybody any harm, and the world looks wonderful when it stops!
Lovely poem. Green is particularly glorious when it comes back 🙂
Thanks Janice 🙂 It makes up for the cold that leads up to it.
For sure 🙂 🌷
Love this, especially, Jane:
“Sodden hills, a sullen shroud.”
Such a lovely somber mood here.
Thank you! Then when the sun breaks through, how glorious it all is 🙂