Light Shift – a poem from ‘When the Birds Came’ – Rose Cook

Light Shift

 

Morning and hope of seeing light shift on the wall,

already the tree across the road is covered in pink blossom.

We have our own Hanami, hold baby up to see.

At night I look down at it, even in the dark it blossoms whitely.

The moon shines full, a snow moon.

 

Every day a new page

every day a chance.

 

On a walk we find an elf garden 

made from sticks and moss

where a child played

and a circle of celandine flowers

shine with yellow magic.

 

 

Rose Cook

* my new book When the Birds Came is now available

@ £5 (plus p&p) rosecook108@gmail.com

 

 

This – Rose Cook

This

For me, I am still at the practice of balance, 

trying to live deeply, 

 

who knew it would not get easier as we get older.

Grateful though. 

 

Five swans flew by the window this morning.

Surely this is enough.

 

 

 

photo Rose Cook

The silence of pines

 

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 

Here comes May…blessings to you all

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 )  

 

March ~ an excerpt from ‘Fresh Start: A Shepherd’s Calendar’ Rose Cook

MARCH  

 

Month of the Winds ambushed by sudden snow

Wind moon   Chaste Lenten moon   Vernal equinox  

 

Time of change. Spring begins.

We stand on the soil, feel life stir beneath and around us.

Small birds, sparrows, make nests, all birds grow intent and sing.

The distance we have travelled, we know ourselves better.

Rain runs down gutters, chatters up possibilities, lifts,

fills small pools where frogspawn glitters.

 

 

March – time of weather:

 

March, month of ‘many weathers’ wildly comes

in hail and snow and rain and threatening hums

and floods…

 

 

(from John Clare’s The Shepherd’s Calendar 1-3)

photo Rose Cook

‘Fresh Start: A Shepherd’s Calendar’ (pub Hen Run, Grey Hen Press 2021)

available £4 plus p&p from Rose at rosecook108@gmail.com