Tag Archives: Earthweal

Winter God

December 6, 2022Fantasy, poem, Poetry, speculative poetry, winterEarthweal, Fantasy, nature, poem, poetry, speculative poetry, winterThe Cheesesellers Wife

Tall, lean, feline, black eyed Winter is aprowl
high-shouldered, haughty, she
swirls through branches that strain to catch her
bleaches an expansive sky
watches for lonely bones

This night a god will sing in the storm
lay her glitter cloak over all
reveal a power and deadly glory
to make you question your beliefs
as she slithers under doors to embrace you
gnaws your bones with cold
takes you

‘Winter God’ was first published in March 2022 by Milk and Cake Press in the Dead of Winter 2 anthology

Posted for Earthweals weekly challenge. OK , so a bit of a cheat, but we are predicted temperatures of -10C (14F) here in England – I fear that the Winter god is taking up residence.

High on the Downs

May 4, 2022England, Life, nature, poem, Poetry, Wild lifeEarthweal, England, Life, nature, poem, poetry, wildlifeThe Cheesesellers Wife

Long grasses sift the evening wind
scent it with pollens
stars prickle through high cloud

somewhere, Skylark still sings
finishing the day shift
elsewhere, Owl calls
announcing night

dusk empties the land
of humanity
all close together
in their dim shelters

here on the ridge
Hare comes close
closer
black tipped ears erect

we return her stare
for what seems
forever

Written for this weeks earthweal weekly challenge: SPIRITS OF PLACE

Tricksters all……

March 8, 2022poem, Poetrycoyote, Earthweal, poem, poetryThe Cheesesellers Wife

We laugh at the moon
cry to the stars
snuggle in our dens
try to roam free

True to the coyote within

Sang this world into being
loving, tricking
playing, living
will howl at its end

True to the coyote within

Written in response to this weeks EarthWeal Challenge, where we are asked to ‘write an animal poem, ensouled with the animal body in your animal mind. You can embrace the extra-human wherever it is found, in beast, fish, tree, land- or seascape or star canopy.’

As often happens with my poetry, I went at this a bit slant. In my childhhod I read many tales that originated from the myths of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas — tales where Coyote helped sing the world into existence, where he made sure that humans were modelled after his mercurial trickster spirit.

We are all coyotes, tricking and loving our way through the world, to its end……..

Crossing the park, 11am Monday

February 7, 2022nature, poem, Poetry, Wild life, winterEarthweal, Life, nature, poem, poetry, wildlife, winterThe Cheesesellers Wife

Scattered folds of night
litter bright mown grasses
spring up into the air
startled, flapping
at our arrival

We watch them wheel and
turn above us
spot a Red Kite floating high
turn again, caw to each other
settle under advantageous trees

Kite eats carrion not crow

For this week’s earthweal challenge, we are asked to “write of WILD MIND. How does green fire take root in the thought of our poems?”

I am offering up a little vignette of parkife here in my small town. After a morning of Internet research for a local project, I took a walk, and was lifted by my local birds.

Winter Reveals 2

December 20, 2021Christmas, nature, poem, Poetry, winterChristmas, Earthweal, nature, poem, poetry, winterThe Cheesesellers Wife

Trees stark against the sky
show signs of hard pruning
or scars of storm damage

Sunlight shafts through leafless woods
reveals which wild seeded
and which are straight lined planting

The artificial brightnesses of our Decembers
do not touch this hard solitude
as we all wait for the future

This is a reworking of a poem I wrote (and blogged) in 2017. I was never sure of the ending, and I like this version better.

I was inspired to go back to this poem by the weekly prompt at Earthweal, which is all about Nadirs and Zeniths.

Trees reprise

September 23, 2021nature, poem, Poetryautumn, Earthweal, nature, poem, poetry, treesThe Cheesesellers Wife

Shafts of cellulose stretching to the sky
Leafed about with green

No autumn yet, no crimson stains
the future remains unseen

The first two lines are from a short poem posted here in 2017….

This poem is posted for earthweal

Urgency

July 19, 2021climate, poem, Poetryclimate change, Climate crisis, Death, Earthweal, floodsThe Cheesesellers Wife

The little urgencies of the day
scratch at our ankles

while our graves rush at us
mouths open
fanged with heat bubbles
rising rivers
devastation

hunger

Written for earthweal

Quietude

May 24, 2021Life, nature, philosophy, poem, PoetryEarthweal, hills, Life, nature, philosophy, poem, poetryThe Cheesesellers Wife

Give me the hills
that I may look down upon life
and up into the infinite
that I may relish fresh air
and the walk behind me

Give me their space and quietude
the grace to understand
their perspective

Written for EarthWeal

Dancing with shadows

March 11, 2021poem, PoetryEarthweal, poem, poetry, poetry challengeThe Cheesesellers Wife

Any attempt to pin down
this exact moment, that exact image
exactly what I feel and need to say
needs words that are not born yet,
metaphors for minds not yet formed,
such is exactitude.
Yet that is what poets attempt to do.
We stand at the edge of the crowd,
listening to the music
hearing the echoes of other times and places,
and ask a shadow to dance.

For this weeks Earthweal Challenge on the nature of poetry

earthweal weekly challenge: THE NATURE OF POETRY

And the budding begins

February 2, 2021poem, Poetry, springtimeEarthweal, Life, poem, poetry, spring, springtime, treesThe Cheesesellers Wife

And the budding begins
sticky tree buds emerge
from bare wood

Reddish at first
shading to luminous green
a promise

Nature now waits
as do I, with baited breath
for the right moment

This is a rewrite of an earlier poem, Study in Green, re-visited for Sarahs challenge about seasonal changes over at EarthWeal