A sequence of short poems inspired by Claudia McGill’s reflections on geraniums at windows.

There is joy and beauty
beneath the city grime,
and the blackbird’s song
is just the same
beneath this sky.
*
There is beauty in the stone that glints
with the colours of the changing light,
and in the chaotic fluttering of sparrows’ wings.
There is kindness in the dirty blanket
laid beneath an old dog’s head,
and happiness when a greeting is returned,
a stranger’s uncalculating smile.
*
The earth is deep and dark in the garden plot
where snails creep,
elegant and unhurried,
among the stalks.
The earth is deep and full of life
that shoots and climbs higgledy-piggledy,
without order or patience,
riotous and lush,
because the sun and rain fall here as anywhere.
The earth is,
deep and eternal,
beneath my tread,
and over my head,
the sky.
And on a lighter note
How grey the sky and damp the air
and loud the screech of tyres complaining.
Beyond the cloud and heavy mist
somewhere there’s sun and it’s not raining.