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The Last Day of 2020

This year my world grew smaller
Whilst my health grew stronger
Time to sense the air
Stare out at open sea
The waves’ rhythm is sensation inside my skin
Intention to connection
As the wide world opens up in my spirit

Thoughts crystallize
Like a layer of frost on the red berry
And the variety of the weather of my desires
Merge into a single raindrop
The many threads of the spider’s web
Honed to become one smooth stone

What I choose to do is as unimportant as
Which song the blackbird sings
How many times the dog barks
Which leg the cat washes first
The woodland path, the desert trail,
The mountain climb, the meadow track
All lead to the homestead with a fire burning in its hearth

This year my world grew bigger
Whilst my health grew better
Unhooking my soul from the thinking mind
I take my raincoat down from its peg
Put it on
And go out into this miraculous world

Sarah Caddick

Currently Popular Poems:

S.A.D

The black dog Shook his weary head Stay in bed He said. The black dog Followed me again Munching biscuits Lost energies for meals. The black dog Didn’t go for walks For three weeks He stayed inside. Not answering his calls The black dog remained silent Until Spring. Chris

Silence in Class

Into a cushioned pillow Amplified silences Signal a crushing loss and services unknown. An unofficial Query Offers hope to the unknown Forgotten in resonance and steep memories. Traumas unveil A mask of deception Decades of vicious darkness an undercover supply. Anon.

Greyfriars

If ever there were dragons they left their passion here in garnet schist and granite,  crazy migmatite of marbled black and white: hot scramblings of the pluton. What's left of monks is bony, hard to see: a grassy field where horses crop and starlings pop and bubble natter-songs of seed and insect, feeding over buried walls. Cobble-flocks and boulders Cluster; mortared stone reliques tell crustal stories deeper than our poor humanity. Churches pass and minsters fall: the pagan flints remain. Tim

Ickworth Oaks

Those ancient tumbled oaks With intermittent decay the ridged thick bark clings to the base of striped ochre-gold. Silver-grey serpentine arms, outstretched lightning forks reaching to the tufted earth. Beetle channels deeply grooved beneath marks of a veteran striped bark, worn, crumbled and flaked. Amorphous hues, a forgotten silhouette of darkness revealed in Winter’s sun. Cameron

Whispered Words

Whispered words of silence Forgotten energies Of the past. Like a recurring dream Restless thoughts Of the now. Spirited voices of the present Elated energies Of the future.   Sally  

Ready to Spring

Like the gnarly springtime bulbs, dormant in the ground Your demons crouch under the skin, waiting to be found Waiting for their moment, to break through and be seen The pale face of snowdrops, in a vibrant sea of green Emmalene Taylor

River Linnet

River Linnet, A chalk stream In Bury. Rubbish, Let’s bin it Instead of Filling it. Edith St-King

A Mindful Reunion

We meet in silence Clutching blankets brought from home, Holding memories from a year ago When scars were raw, Heads disguised by wigs And tears too salt to weep. I found words difficult then. ‘Body scan’ Was not a mindful exercise But a machine at the end of a corridor. There were places in my body I could not touch with thought. Like chrysalis we scatter the floor Each section of our being Revisited with childlike curiosity, Sensations magnified, the tickle of wool, the press of cotton. A forgotten ache from an ankle. Our teacher’s voice Both lesson and lullaby Returning to the breath Again and again We try to train our thoughts; Naughty as puppies With Baskerville bites I find peacefulness within the ordinary, Rest my head in the soft cushion of a second Savouring the beauty of this moment, Both rooted in earth and reaching for stars. Jacqueline Woods

Feathers

It’s as if all the birds In every weather Had dropped every feather The weight sometimes Of all those why's A ton of lead Or a ton of words unsaid Down on a feathered bed The weight belies The width of squawks When the birds are dead And they sing remembering When a ton of song Weighed the same as Fly away Autumns Flu away fall Feather or not Bird at all. Stephen Kirin

Castaway

If my cast was made of moss I’d be content With the spring of reassurance. If my emotions were made of clay I’d mould them Into a ball. If my ball rolled Far away I’d rescue them Without fail. Natasha