photo Rose Cook
I’m really pleased to introduce my new book When the Birds Came.
It shares new poems and takes you through my year. A year when the birds came.
When the Birds Came is available now from Rose at: rosecook108@gmail.com at £5 plus p&p
warmest wishes to you,
Rose
The silence of pines
On a hot day they offer shade
though I have always noticed them,
a stand of tall pines.
To be in their shadows
such silence,
sanctum.
Dense grass, a scattering of cones,
high in the crowns a wish of breeze
where bees dance,
down here though
the gift
is deep silence.
Rose Cook
photo Rose Cook
June – time of blossom:
Now summer is in flower and nature’s hum
is never silent round her sultry bloom
insects as small as dust are never done
wi’ glittering dance and reeling in the sun…
(from John Clare’s The Shepherd’s Calendar 1-4)
JUNE
Month of the Summer with longer nights.
Moon of horses Dyad moon Strawberry moon Summer Solstice
Buzzards learn to fly. Dragonflies flash.
Sunflowers open. Wheat ripens. Soft fruit time.
To roll a strawberry in the palm of your hand is to hold the weight
of so many weeks of sunshine, earth and water.
Iris, butterflies, rose.
Time of garlands, floral dancing, midsummer weddings.
In the fields, sheep seek shade, tuck together along hedges and shadow.
( An extract from June in my new book ‘Fresh Start: A Shepherd’s Calendar’ costs £4 and is available from me at rosecook108@gmail.com or info@greyhenpress.com )
May – time of hawthorn:
Come queen of months in company
wi all thy merry minstrelsy
the restless cuckoo absent long
and twittering swallows chimney song…
(from John Clare’s The Shepherd’s Calendar 1-4)
MAY
Month of the Hawthorn
Hare moon Milk moon Bright moon
Peonies bloom short glamour.
The birds sing fiercely and loud.
In the dusk blackbirds fill the air with song.
We wear lighter clothes. Cotton hats.
The air is sweet, thick with insects.
Listen to their under whisper.
Frogs have begun to chorus.
Time to find wild herbs flowering.
The hawthorn blooms call us to Maying.
Fertility dances around.
( An extract from May in my new book ‘Fresh Start: A Shepherd’s Calendar’ costs £4 and is available from me at rosecook108@gmail.com
or order from: info@greyhenpress.com )
Rose Cook 