White cold sun slides down
The arc of brief afternoon
Dips behind a shattered peak
And snow and air turn vivid blue
Colouring all in dimness
Silence becomes more so
It is the time for trolls
My sons laughter fills the sledding slope
As I cajole them to the cabin
A long walk away
Across deep snow
During the time for trolls
Copyright © 2017 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Tumbling memories
Stir forsaken emotions
Act as a cleaver
Chipping an iceberg of longing
Trapped in my frozen sea
Copyright © 2017 Kim Whysall-Hammond
This painting of mine was inspired by a photo posted on Facebook taken by a friend during her daily run. Lucky woman!
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
Copyright © 2017 Kim Whysall-Hammond
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
Copyright © 2017 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Snowdrops
No snow but snowdrops
Clumping along hedgerows
Sliding down roadside verges
Sauntering in woodlands
Appearing big and bold against midwinter browns
Copyright © 2017 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Cold
Foggy days in old Amsterdam
When rooftops hide in the gloom
Hoar frost sparkles tattered bushes
Tram windows mist up
Flying home to unexpected chill
House cold as a tomb
Huddling around an electric heater
Sipping tea, as the gas boiler struggles
Bright morning, glowing sunshine
Garden frosted like a Christmas cake
Hens fluffed up against the chill
We miss the warmth of good friends
Copyright © 2016 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Thank you Edgar, for the photograph…..
Robin in the fig tree
What are the words?
Bright, cheery red, bob-bob-bobbing?
My Robin has read Ted Hughes
He pulls worms fighting from the stiff soil
Terrorises chickens, birds a hundred times his size
Fights to the death for territory
He is now lurking in our small unproductive Fig tree
That leans awkwardly out of a fake ceramic tub
The pigeons by the pond look uneasy
Copyright © 2016 Kim Whysall-Hammond
Study in Brown
Sunlight gilds and sparkles winterbare branches
Casts long shadows across ridge and furrow
Rabbits sit in the sun mourning the loss of leaves and grasses in the new ploughing
With one bound they are gone as the colour highlight appears
The russet brown of a Red Kite hunting
Copyright © 2016 Kim Whysall-Hammond
