Tag Archives: philosophy

Gecko

July 19, 2017Life, love, philosophy, poem, Poetry, Wild lifegecko, Life, philosophy, sicily, Wild lifeThe Cheesesellers Wife

Each siesta, my gecko came
Skittering across the mottled ceiling
Dancing over paint flakes
Lengthening his neck to peer down
At me

He would not leave his hiding hole
Until I laid me down to rest
In the Sicilian noonday heat
Then two sparkling gleaming eyes
Held vigil

Halfway between stick and snake
Sandy spiky little friend
Padded feet gripping to defy gravity
My curious Gecko watched over me
Literally

Once his powers failed him
And he plopped down onto my chest
I woke to see him face to face
And find in those eyes
Understanding

Open

June 28, 2017garden, Life, philosophy, poem, Poetrygarden, Life, philosophy, poem, poetry, skyThe Cheesesellers Wife

Let me lie here
Open to the sky
Counting blessings

I live in silences

June 21, 2017Life, philosophy, poem, PoetryLife, philosophy, poem, poetry, silenceThe Cheesesellers Wife

The unease of an empty house
The loneliness of children gone
The sadness of a lover away
The concentration of a painting class
The contemplation of piece of art
Busy baking, waiting for family to return
Tramping on a long country walk
Song birds in the garden
Hens around my feet
Quiet to read the difficult book
Peace to find the space where I am me

Re-blogged from 2015….

The plant place

June 9, 2017children, Life, nature, parenting, philosophy, poem, Poetry, springtimechildren, Gardening, Life, parenting, philosophy, plants, poem, poetryThe Cheesesellers Wife

Today we visited the plant place
Delighted in sturdy trees and shrubs
And many small flowers nurtured to full brightness
In a long slow chill spring
By a couple who could be us in fifteen years time
We took time to linger, to chat and choose
Brought home Lavender, rooted stems of Blackthorn
Several small domes of Thyme
“We bought some Thyme” I said to our teen-aged son
Who contested that time cannot be bought
But is spent often heedlessly
Slipping away unnoticed
We bought time in his younger days with reduced incomes
Time spent with him and his brother
Not wasted, but well-used and treasured
I delight in this sturdy young man
Tended and taught, growing to the light
Both plants and children need tender care
Nurseries are a well spring of civilisation

The”Plant place” is Wolverton Plants. I wrote this a couple of months ago after a visit on my birthday, and have just found it again on a stray piece of paper. I publish it today in honour of ‘Where are the Chickens’ new baby son….

https://wherearethechickens.com/2017/06/08/blackberries-and-a-baby/

Glory

May 14, 2017astronomy, cosmology, Life, nature, philosophy, poem, Poetry, Science, science poetryastronomy, cosmology, Life, NASA, nature, philosophy, poem, poetry, space, UniverseThe Cheesesellers Wife

And we stand upon this globe
Asking of the Universe
What?
Recognition?
Salvation?
Whatever you please
In it’s glory
(Shown by our ingenuity and craft
As we build orbital telescopes)
The Universe does not need us
Unless as an observer
Are we here simply to watch?
Look up, look up
Glory awaits

Poetry makes nothing happen

April 16, 2017philosophy, poem, PoetryBlogging, Leonard Cohen, philosophy, poem, poetry, WH AudenThe Cheesesellers Wife

Poetry makes nothing happen

Poetry may make nothing happen, but poetry happens to me
Announces its first line as others worm into my brain
Poetry flows stuttering from head to fingers to paper or screen
Words arrive and force themselves out
Typed frantically into the phone at the roadside, scribbled on random sheets
Telling stories, painting pictures, crying love or grief
It is mine in so much as I capture and tidy it
In so much as the stories, pictures, loves and grief’s are mine
Sometimes I can pull the inspiration to me
Make it give me the means for what I need or want to express
Make it work for me (like now)
But mostly it is a response

Poetry happens

To me

The picture quotes Leonard Cohen

Inspired by:

For poetry makes nothing happen: it survives
In the valley of its making where executives
Would never want to tamper, flows on south
From ranches of isolation and the busy griefs,
Raw towns that we believe and die in; it survives,
A way of happening, a mouth.

WH Auden

I refute your logic

April 8, 2017Life, love, philosophy, poem, Poetryhumanity, Life, logic, love, philosophy, poem, poetryThe Cheesesellers Wife

I refute your logic

I refute your logic
We will pass through it
As if it doesn’t exist
Lying here grasping each other
Waiting and holding
Until further disturbed

M1 in winter

April 5, 2017Life, parenting, philosophy, poem, Poetry, watercolour, winterEngland, Life, nature, parenting, philosophy, poem, poetry, sun, Sunset, Technology, travel, winterThe Cheesesellers Wife

M1 in winter (Watford Gap 1 mile)

Mist enwrapped trees extinguish the low orange glow of the Sun
Taillights warm the twilight ahead
Headlights shine on traffic cones and road workers jackets
Jagged shadows in a field reveal a ruined brick barn
Aerofoils loom above, rotating for electricity
We return from lunch with a son at University
Time, long and relaxed, spent talking junk
Films, comics, games, YouTube
Reconnecting the family

Each capsule of metal alongside, before and behind
Contains a story
Adulterous trysts? Mismanaged meeting? Half Term visit to the Zoo?
All these journeys and ours are twenty first century bubbles
Made manifest in the manic twentieth
Our posterity is as yet uncertain
The fields and their shadows will outlive us all
Animals will graze, trees loom in the dark
And Suns set, wetly

The other nations of this Earth

March 26, 2017beauty, Chickens, Life, nature, Pets, philosophy, poem, Poetry, Wild lifeanimals, beauty, Earth, Henry Beston, hens, humanity, Life, nation, nature, philosophy, Wild birds, Wild lifeThe Cheesesellers Wife

The other nations of this Earth

The other nations of this Earth live along side us
Misunderstood, undervalued, used and abused
So many of us not longer see them
We fortunate few may wilfully misunderstand
But many see the truth, see the power and strength
Even in a hen, blackbird or crow
Animals are the other nations of this Earth
Caught in the net of time
Travellers with us on this one green globe

“….the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with the extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings: they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.”
~ Henry Beston

Winter reveals

March 4, 2017beauty, Christmas, garden, Life, nature, philosophy, poem, Poetry, winterbeauty, garden, Gardening, Life, philosophy, poem, poetry, sun, Sunset, trees, winterThe Cheesesellers Wife

Winter reveals

The structure of trees
Stark against the sky
Showing signs of hard pruning
Or scars of storm damage

Sunlight shafting through leafless woods
Illuminates gloomy roads
Reveals which are wild seeded
And which are straight lined plantations

The dark days of November
The artificial brightness of December
January and February chill
All uncover different weaknesses of the human heart