Tag Archives: exmoor

Rain on the moor

beauty, England, exmoor, Life, poem, Poetry, weather, , , , ,

Here on the moor
Rain closes you down
Takes away the horizon
Soaks and settles
Creates hazards
Can flood and kill

Rain lashes at the face
Stinging like needles
Sends cold tendrils down the neck
Seeps into all things
Deepens bogs and fords
Hides the path from view

A rainy day on the moor
Be it drizzle or a squall
Leaves you slipping and tumbling
Heading for shelter
Dripping at the pub or tearoom door
Grateful for the warm and dry

Copyright © 2019 Kim Whysall-Hammond

Moorland

beauty, England, exmoor, poem, Poetry, , , , , , ,

High on the moor is a special silence
Broken by decoying skylarks
Ponies breast a rise
Sheep appear from the bracken
Our footsteps loud on the rutted path
Under lowering cloud

Copyright © 2019 Kim Whysall-Hammond

Fellow Traveller

beauty, England, exmoor, nature, poem, Poetry, , , ,

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

 

Copyright © 2017 Kim Whysall-Hammond

Advertisements

We live on the high ground

exmoor, history, Life, poem, Poetry, , , ,

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

Copyright © 2017 Kim Whysall-Hammond

 

Originally published in Three Drops from a Cauldron: Issue 11

Two poems published in Total Eclipse

poem, Poetry, , , ,

I’m really happy to tell you that my poems ‘The Moor and the Sky ’  and ‘Bone Moon’ have been published in the first issue of Total Eclipse.

Total Eclipse is a literary journal based in Pittsburgh, PA
structured by nature and our multifaceted relationships
with nature; magically real experience; and the meditative
​appreciation of all things natural.

A Print issue can be ordered at:

https://totaleclipsepittsburgh.weebly.com/

….and you can scroll through a digital version at the site above and read my poems on page 48.

 

Thank you to the editor Mark Sepe and best wishes to him in this new endeavour.

Places of Poetry

England, exmoor, poem, Poetry, , , , ,

Colin Hill has found a great poetry project :

https://www.placesofpoetry.org.uk/

—It’s open to all and aims to use “creative writing to prompt reflection on national and cultural identities in England and Wales, celebrating the diversity, heritage and personalities of place.”

The site is open for writers to pin their poems to places from 31st May to 4 October 2019. It will then be closed for new poems but will remain available for readers.

I have pinned these poems of mine on the map:

Farm   (pinned near Didcot)

Picking up the Cheeses  (pinned at Iwerne Minster in Dorset)

Rat Trap (pinned in North Hillingdon)

Glaslyn (pinned at Lake Glaslyn near Lllanidloes, Mid-Wales)

At Stratford with William (pinned at Stratford upon Avon)

Fellow Traveller (pinned in the middle of Exmoor)

 

Um, yes I think I got a bit carried away….have you got some poems to pin there????