Category Archives: exmoor

Exmoor Spring

May 23, 2018Poetry, poem, beauty, exmoor, EnglandEngland, exmoor, poem, poetry, rhyme, sheep, spring, springtimeThe Cheesesellers Wife

Sheep gnaw at clumps of grass
Buttercups shine as yellow cut-glass
Bluebells haze and blue a bare hill bereft of a wood
And I laze where struggling shepherds once stood.

We live on the high ground

April 5, 2018archeology, exmoor, Life, poem, Poetryarcheology, exmoor, family, Life, Neolithic, poem, poetry, prehistory, Stone age, stone circlesThe Cheesesellers Wife

We live on the high ground
Below us the water tumbles and falls, jumping over buried rocks
Water criss-crosses the land eventually falling to the sea
Life is good here on the high, fresh soil and clear water
Healthy children, full bellies, long lives
Yesterday we sowed seed, laughing and singing
Today the sun is warm and the birds are singing for me
I try to put the birdsong into speech
As we knap flints from the coast
Mother is drawing a circle on the turf near the Family stones
A circle stones of to encompass Grandmother who closes in to death
We will cover her in the soil of home to keep her with us
Here on the high ground

Originally published in Three Drops from a Cauldron: Issue 11

Herepath

January 17, 2018archeology, beauty, exmoor, history, nature, poem, Poetryexmoor, Herepath, history, nature, poem, poetry, TolkienThe Cheesesellers Wife

Wide as ten men abreast
The old road cuts between farms
Dips down to the river
Rises up over the moor
Rabbits lollop, lambs bleat
Rosebay glows at sunset
Where were the wars that you marched to?
Where were the victories that you won?
Here on the old Herepath
The road truly goes ever on

Moorland night

December 30, 2017astronomy, beauty, exmoor, poem, Poetry, winterEngland, exmoor, Life, night, poem, poetryThe Cheesesellers Wife

Stars pooled like milk at zenith
Coloured lights tracking across
Blinking

Deep night swallows all light
Here on the Moor

High Hilled Moor

December 9, 2017England, exmoor, Life, nature, poem, Poetry, weatherEngland, exmoor, Fog, Hoar Oak Water, Life, walking, weatherThe Cheesesellers Wife

Fog rose out of the valley
Where Hoar Oak Water runs
Swarmed up onto our hill path
Rose further to blot the sun

Encompassed within minutes
We faltered on our way
Scrambled up a steep slope
To see hills afloat on a vast sea

Exmoor Soundscape

October 11, 2017beauty, exmoor, Life, nature, poem, Poetrybeauty, Buzzard, exmoor, Life, nature, pony, soundscape, travel, Wild birds, Wild lifeThe Cheesesellers Wife

Wild ponies snorting in the shade of a thorn tree
The kee of a buzzard soaring overhead
A ragged baa from a startled ewe
All underlaid by the irregular rumble of falling tumbling water

A note to readers from America: An English buzzard is not a vulture, but catches live prey.

The Overwhelming Sky

September 30, 2017art, exmoor, Life, nature, Painting, poem, Poetryart, exmoor, Nomads, Painting, poem, poetry, sky, Starry NightThe Cheesesellers Wife

The overwhelming sky enthralls me
Shows me its magic, fills me with glory
Layers of stratus, piles of towering cumulus
Cirrus lacing glazes overtop
Neon pink icy scribbling on an evening horizon
Fireworks sunsets, pale sleepy dawns
Reds, yellows, purples, greens overwrite the blue and black
Gauguin, Picasso, Rothko must have felt this
The Starry Night is truth, no wonder Vincent suffered so
Genghis rode under this dome that encompasses all of our lives
Did its pressure drive him to the cities for refuge rather than plunder?

The overwhelming sky appears to have no end
Although I know that it is but the skin on the planet apple
It bears down on me, it conquers me
Filling me up with its immensity
Until I spill this burden of words
To offer them as sacrificial token
To try to explain this hold
To bid to exorcise it
To seek release
But
It is the master of me

First published on Your One Phone Call earlier this year . Part of a series of poems about the sky, others are Open Sky and Evening Star.

Fellow Traveller

August 30, 2017beauty, exmoor, Life, nature, poem, Poetry, Wild lifeDeer, exmoor, Life, nature, poem, poetry, walking, Wild lifeThe Cheesesellers Wife

Drowsing on the wayside
Halfway through our walk
We are stopped
Something rustles and I open my eyes
Raise my head
There in the red tipped grasses of the moor
Stands a doe, ears twitching
Black liquid eyes gazing into mine
Two creatures on the uplands
We exchange something in that moment
Before the nearby bleat of a sheep
Startles us each
And the moment and doe are both gone

Dunkery

August 2, 2017art, exmoor, Life, nature, Painting, Poetry, watercolourDunkery Beacon, exmoor, Life, poem, poetry, sky, sun, SunsetThe Cheesesellers Wife

Lording over the moors and valleys, visible out to sea
Bold Dunkery, crowned with cairns ancient and modern
Your summit cairn is in summer twilight crowned by larking lads
Come to watch the sunset, yet cheated by horizon hugging cloud
They revel in unexpected solitude at a well trodden spot

It was lovely up at Dunkery Beacon in the twilight.

Blue Anchor beach

July 31, 2017art, beauty, exmoor, nature, Painting, watercolourart, Blue Anchor, exmoor, fossil, nature, Painting, watercolourThe Cheesesellers Wife

A watercolour painting of the eastern end of Blue Anchor beach, near Exmoor. This is where we have collected many fine fossils. Painted in 2016 — the rocks have been battered by further winter storms and look a bit different this year.