Light
light everywhere
scattered from water
sky
and walls of clear glass
Crowded masts cut against
brightness repeated
white hulls slapped by wavelets
seabirds wheel and cry
All is light
all is calm
Copyright © 2023 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Light
light everywhere
scattered from water
sky
and walls of clear glass
Crowded masts cut against
brightness repeated
white hulls slapped by wavelets
seabirds wheel and cry
All is light
all is calm
Copyright © 2023 Kim Whysall-Hammond
In the middle of the bright Atlantic
Floating on the swell between island volcanoes
Beneath reflective surface tension
Silvered gas bubbles catch the light
And, across the issuing rift
A long snake of data cable
Broken sheared twisted
As the gas breaks the surface
We hear voices
Blogs bubbling to the top
Instructions to buy or sell
A thousand tiny voices
Sparkling in the sunshine
Several parrot fish swim by
Next day when snorkelling
I fancy I hear fish blogging
Copyright © 2016 Kim Whysall-Hammond
This poem was first published by the wonderful Helen Ivory on Ink, Sweat and Tears: http://www.inksweatandtears.co.uk/pages/?p=12491
Nine glorious islands
girdled by ocean
perched on basalt flaws
holes in the world wall
where heat seeps up
and magma roils underneath
makes rock and homes shudder
Copyright © 2022 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Thinking of the Azores at present, where, although it is stormy and the central group of islands are experiencing many mini-quakes, it’s a balmy 20C!
The sky is empty
Pale winter blue
A single bar of cloud
Hovers over the western horizon
And as I drive
The sun dips behind it
The edges of the cloud glow silver
The strong beauty almost takes me off the road
Copyright © 2015 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Reposted from a while back, but this happened to me again the other day!
Dawn breaks the sky
raw light floods island & ocean
All birdsong ceases for just the moment
when day is painted over night
colour returns to us
a breeze slowly lifts
the sun soars, reaching for this speck of land
in ocean immensity
Pico, veiled in high cloud
crenulated by sister cones
looms soft purple & charcoal across the strait
diva of the skies, demanding attention
holding the gaze
stately hot tempered grand dame
always beautiful, subtly threatening
Copyright © 2022 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Another poem about the Azores, I must return soon……
Our Lady the Sun
source of heat and fuel for life
beautiful at the horizon
painting clouds and sky
We bask and burn in her glory
as she sits supreme at system centre
girdled by planets, visited by stray comets
Regally burning
Interior electrons impede her light
render her glowing orb opaque
not that you can see this
it would burn your eyes out
Copyright © 2015 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Form
doesn’t always follow function
Beauty
cannot always be seen
Love
is hardly ever symmetrical
Copyright © 2022 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Walking east across the beach
boulders and rocks littered
as if discarded playthings.
Each contains treasures
some already spilt out
glistening traceries of lives past
revealed after aeons of hiding.
Copyright © 2021 Kim Whysall-Hammond
two figures and a blanket
tall dry grasses whispering
as light fades in the west
and shadows fold around them
Copyright © 2021 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Blue Baltic waters
semi-sweet to taste
Pale rose rocked islands
Rising softly from the sea
And oh
Oh
All those Birches
So many Birch trees
tall straight trunks
massing on every surface
White wrapped
Or black inked?
Design icons
Bearing thin scrolls of bark
whose paleness
reflected summers northern light
into grateful eyes
Copyright © 2017 Kim Whysall-Hammond
For John Looker