I remember

A quadrille for dverse.

I remember

I remember
sun-dapples on the grass,
glitter on stream-water,
face raised to the sky
and spring clouds scudding
in warm west winds,
sky throbbing blue,
heat haze on the lane,
a mirage held in my hand.

I wish I had not let it go.

Gyrfalcon

A quadrille for the dverse prompt.

Gyrfalcon

Before falls the dark arctic night,
ice-wind moaning
where shattered rocks sprawl,

Gyrfalcon soars, wheels,
sundering the whistling air,
crystal-cold, fierce as hunger.

Life is winter-raw,
white not red,
blood-pulsing beneath the still blue.

Yellow-eyed, all-seeing,
the bird-god enfolds the world
in his wings.

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Sunset, the darker half begins

For the dverse prompt.

Sunset, the darker half begins

Night of festive fires,
candles, remembrance,
the telling of stories,
drinking of toasts.

On the cusp of the year,
we walk without fear,
soft darkness enfolds us
with lost loved hands.

Only wide-eyed children
start from their dreams,
scared by an owl’s
wild screams.

The hare

A quadrille for dverse.

The hare

At the meadow’s edge I saw, where
the trees make shadows green,
pressed in the grass a form, hare
left showed where he had been.

The morning quiet’s broken,
by gunshot, eager sounds
of hunters’ sharp words spoken
and the belling of their hounds.

and the whole poem.

The hare

At the meadow’s edge I saw, where
the trees make shadows green,
pressed in the grass a form, hare
left showed where he had been.

The morning quiet’s broken,
by gunshot, eager sounds
of hunters’ sharp words spoken
and the belling of their hounds.

Are they looking for the wild thing
that rested by the hedge,
where the blackbirds and the thrush sing,
and the breeze sighs in the sedge?

Will they take the deer path, follow
tracks lost in the tangled trees,
or will they find the grassy hollow
where my hare rests? Hide him, please!

I hear the hounds’ wild crying,
voices urging, find the prey,
a russet flash, hooves flying,
of the deer that got away.

When silence falls, jay keeping
watch calls out in thankful praise;
somewhere a hare is sleeping
beneath the Good Ones’ watchful gaze.

Everyone had a gran, only a few of us had mine

For the dverse prompt.

Everyone had a gran, only a few of us had mine

Talk the hind leg off a donkey,
Tea weaker than a Jesuit’s piss,
Living off the pig’s back,
There’s more Paddy Reillys than one,
There’s no show without Punch.

The expressions she used
coloured my life,
painted features on the language,
made it laugh.

Distant storm

A quadrille for dverse.

Distant storm

In the dark of turquoise dusk,
a half-moon and the brightest stars,
the world of silence bathed in light;
prepares itself for restless night.

A single cloud mass, heron-grey,
squats in the east lit from within,
a billow-tide worked through with gold,
lightning-silvered thundergod.

Rain and morning

For the dverse prompt.

Rain and morning

Morning pitter-patter
and we listen to the rain
windows wide
looking for green
at the end
of the rainbowed shafts.

Autumn-scent rises
curled uncurling
tight-budded leaf fingers of new growth
and silent deer beneath the trees
red coats still summer-bright
in this clouded air.

Moon flight

A quadrille for dverse.

Moon flight

There is a certain light
at the start and ending of the night
grey pale as doves in flight.

There is a type of love
that soars on moon-pale wings above
the stars, feathered nestling-soft, a dove,
and it fits us like a glove.

Silver songs

For the dverse prompt.

Silver songs

When you are sleeping deep, and night
is full of stars and tender light,
my lips will breathe into your ear
words only your heart’s pulse will hear;
don’t fear the dark, the moon’s fierce beams,
for I will wrap you in my dreams.

Nature worship

A trio of cinquains for the dverse quadrille prompt.

Nature worship

Cool green
celebrant of
tree praise, the stream ambles,
strumming root and fallen branch with
music.

Skywards,
the poplars rise,
oriole-filled, silent
in the crushing heat, except for
leaf-hiss

and the
warbler’s ceaseless
song, soft as rain-patter,
building epic nest myths in the
quiet.