Category Archives: Life

Riverine

July 11, 2020children, Life, poem, Poetrychildren, family, Life, poem, poetry, river, sonThe Cheesesellers Wife

My youngest son is rushing
from the sharp hills of adolescence
over rocks and stones, always onwards
like a river to an unfathomable ocean

His thoughts are deep
his soul ancient, older than the flow
kept within his banks

He bickers down valleys
sometimes stilled, mostly calm
until an overflow of joy
forces a burst, a breaking of the levee
and he talks, oh he talks
of his passions, fears and hopes
as a waterfall speaking to the wind

Who will dive into his depths
see the treasures within clear waters
bring them to the surface
for the world to see

Stanza 2 References “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” By Langston Hughes

Friday Poem: Going

July 3, 2020Friday Poem, Life, poem, PoetryFriday Poem, philip larkin, poem, poetryThe Cheesesellers Wife

There is an evening coming in
Across the fields, one never seen before,
That lights no lamps.

Silken it seems at a distance, yet
When it is drawn up over the knees and breast
It brings no comfort.

Where has the tree gone, that locked
Earth to sky? What is under my hands,
That I cannot feel?

What loads my hand down?

Philip Larkin, from The Less Deceived (1955)

There are never enough photos of Pico

June 27, 2020Azores, humour, Life, nature, poem, Poetryazores, Pico, poem, poetry, Virtual Holiday, volcanoThe Cheesesellers Wife

There are never enough photos of Pico
Says he, as he takes yet one more
The light has changed again
And the mountain looks about to roar
We’ve flown over and around her
Driven along her lower slopes
But the best view is away from her
From little Horta’s shore

The mountain slumbers on
Fuji slopes gracefully curving down
She glows rose in the dawns light
By midday she can glower and frown
Clouds drape her and embrace her
Shadowing scree and walled-in grapevine
However far we travel away from her
Somehow that volcano is always mine

And so we end our Virtual Holiday in the Azores with a poem about my favourite volcano. The first line is a quote from my Cheeseseller, as the mountain changed once more and he took yet another photo!

I hope you enjoyed your trip. The photo below was taken just after dawn, from our hotel balcony on the isaland of Faial, as we prepared to return to England.

Graciosa

June 25, 2020Azores, Life, poem, Poetryazores, fishermen, Graciosa, poem, poetry, Virtual HolidayThe Cheesesellers Wife

Where fishermen once hauled nets
Shared gossip, landed fish
Dug long tunnels in the russet cliffs
To shelter their bright boats
We now stand
Pondering the blue Atlantic rollers
As they part around the sentinel stone in the bay
We delight in the spray
Run laughing from rogue waves
Our pleasure replaces their hard toil

Day 5 of our virtual Azores Holiday, we are now on Graciosa, a small gentle island.

We will be there all week — a poem a day to fly you away……

Azores Evening

June 21, 2020Azores, beauty, Life, nature, poem, Poetryazores, beauty, nature, Virtual HolidayThe Cheesesellers Wife

Moonlight has banished an ocean of stars,
pouring molten silver across the water.
Murmuring waves remember a primal ocean,
write poetry in their foam,
erase the day from a busy beach.
A harsh breeze crashes across treetops
as if breaking on a coral reef
and distant sea-birds call evenings end,
sharp disembodied sentinels of the night.

The first evening of a glorious virtual holiday in the Azores. Enjoy!

We will be there all week — a poem a day to fly you away……

Airport

June 20, 2020Azores, Life, poem, PoetryAirport, azores, poem, poetry, travel, Virtual HolidayThe Cheesesellers Wife

Airport bubble
that tinny echo
of voices

Flight delays
a drifting of time
being stuck in place

Life suspended
until our
gate is assigned

We are off on a virtual holiday in the Azores! We will be there all week! A poem a day to fly you away……

Sky

June 17, 2020beauty, Life, love, nature, poem, Poetrybeauty, joy, Life, love, nature, poem, poetry, skyThe Cheesesellers Wife

The sky seduces me
fills my eyes.
Staring out at grey rains today
blessedly cooling
remembering white noons
brick red sunsets, lemon dawns
whales breaching, jellyfish jellying
wind in hair and lungs
exhilaration and joy
memories that tip toe in
hand in hand with all my loves and woes
happinesses, griefs.
I hum songs of the sky
her shadows and canvases
float in my own internal ocean
drift and dream.

Each time I see her, I am joy.

BLM

June 15, 2020Life, love, poem, PoetryBlack Lives Matter, BLM, Life, love, poem, poetryThe Cheesesellers Wife

If they don’t matter, none of us do
if they cant feel secure, who is?
I don’t feel privileged,
as a woman I will not walk the fields here alone.
But I am far more privileged than
George, Breonna, Rayshard
and all those others over all those years.
May my world and their world become one.

The manufacturies of joy

June 13, 2020Life, poem, Poetryclimate change, environment, pandemic, poem, poetry, recessionThe Cheesesellers Wife

The manufacturies of joy
pause and stutter
giving us a chance to begin anew

Stone in the Water

June 10, 2020exmoor, Life, poem, Poetryexmoor, poem, poetryThe Cheesesellers Wife

Deep plunge pool in the heart of the moor
Centred in spring time unfurling of bracken
Shadowed by a twisted thorn tree
Water pours in over a mossy lip
Large pebbles line the sloping
Glowing colours in crystal water

Something falls
Breaks the surface
Circles upon circles radiate
Contours ripple to a point of disappearance
Sparkle in the dawn light
Stone in the water

Re-blogged from 2016.