Herepath
Wide as ten men abreast
The old military road
Cuts between farms
Dips down to the river
Rises up over the moor
Rabbits lollop along it
Lambs bleat in fields beside it
Rosebay glows at sunset
Where were the wars that you marched to?
What were the victories that you won?
Here on the old Herepath
The road truly goes ever on
Copyright © 2017 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Crying the moor
Sedge and moss, peat and grass
Cover the uplands
Sheep run from us, cattle simply watch
Clouds scud past, rain threatens
Stone track turns to muddy path
As we descend to the combe
Past the ruins, past the ponies
Towards the burble of falling water
The fluidity that carved the hill folds
The agent that governs this landscape
Made manifest in Hollocombe Water
Copyright © 2016 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Heart and soul
Something seems to have punched holes in the sky
Ringed with burning hydrogen, glowing against the dark
So we can peer through to blues, brighter stars
A sparkling alternate perhaps
Where life is sweet, death is no robber
All is bathed in glorious light
But look again, these apparent peep-holes
Are no miniatures, they are huge
Light takes hundreds of years to cross them
And millennia to arrive here with this picture
Celestial chrysanthemums colouring the sky
Tempting me to fantasy
Copyright © 2016 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Photos
Sorting through a box of family photos………..
Moments set in the aspic of a photo
Smiles captured in chemical emulsions
Or the many pixels of light sensitive electronics
Laughter lost in time and space
Monochrome images or faded colours
Glossy rectangles with a sharp chemical scent
Hasty inkjet prints on inadequate paper
Rumpled by the moisture of the ink
Boxes full of mixed random images
From a life now lived and gone
Sometimes scribbled names on the back
Unknown unknowable faces
Odd ones where scissors have edited someone out
There is no order to this
To the memories evoked
The surprise findings
The glimpses into the undiscovered country
Copyright © 2016 Kim Whysall-Hammond
