National Poetry Day 2020

 

A poem for National Poetry Day

Silver Bells

 

Silver bells, shiny, reflective

hang scattered in the tree branches

 

The old tree lights have fused

once too many times, no spares now

 

The shops have been devoid of anything

Christmassy since October

 

But she has her silver bells

and when they catch the sunlight

 

refracted light crisscrosses the room

as dust motes go dancing by

 

All she needs are her silver bells

and by candle light she can pretend

 

pretend that life is normal

that Christmas is like all the others

 

Outside the birds go about their business

winter tight in on itself

 

Oblivious of rationing and restrictions

earth waits the winter out

 

And she has her silver bells

and will wait the winter out too.

©Heather Walker 2020

National Poetry Day - A prose poem to celebrate the autumn of life

HAPPY NATIONAL POETRY DAY!

Enjoy your poetry whether you are reading it, writing it or performing it. Here's one of mine. Rather apt for the time of year.

Autumn Years

These are the autumn days, shorter, yet more colourful than the sum total of spring and summer with their languid headiness of new love and hopeless romance. Love now runs deep, an earthiness beyond the ache of wanting. It is solid, freeing, wise with experience, yet not without its adventures!

My days come in flames of reds and orange when all my fruits are multiplied and come into season. Their juicy sweetness runs in my veins. I look back at those growing years. Am I wiser? I’m certainly older. So I grab the sunny days by the scruff, bathing in vibrant yellows, greens, browns and gold, and there is the scent guiding me home – wood smoke trailing to the sky. But I’m not ready yet.

I love the misty mornings, the mellow tones clouded in white. Then the sun bursts through and the trees are glory crowned. I waste no time; daylight hours are shorter, there’s a nip in the air. I walk through fallen leaves; gather shiny conkers, fir cones. The shedding will soon be over and I am not done yet. There will be dark, sunless days, cold winds through old bones, but I have no time for teary regrets. While there is colour in my days you’ll find me walking under the sun, the juice of autumn fruits staining my lips.

National Poetry Day

HAPPY NATIONAL POETRY DAY

Here is a little poem to celebrate:

Orbit

Somewhere

someone

is looking at the moon

in a star flung sky

while I see it slide

into the blue dawn

and fade.