Kestrel
Heatwave ends today
Morning rainstorm, break cover
Brown graze of feathers
..
Cattle Egret
(Cattle egret from a distance.)
Intricate weaving
Across a loom of late grass
Egrets thread cow herd
Apricot hair comb
White feather boa, black silks
Fine for a field day
A line of cattle
Punctuated by white birds
Full stop, comma, dash
..
Sparrows
From the hedgerow, flee!
A flock of fast sparrows flaunt
The field’s dry despair
Long-Tailed Tit
Notes ring, raindrop song
Through wet boughs ten long-tailed tits
Sing sweet harmonies
Grey Heron
Three grey herons fly
Grey flags over grey rooftop
Fanfare for new life
..
The Summer Seagulls
This year, two gull chicks
Speckled pebbles on the ground
By factory door
You sent me photos
Each week, while seagulls watched them
Turn to grey goblins
Shrieking banshee birds
Surviving the heat, the dry
To fully fledge and fly
Summer seagulls swoop
Overhead. Their cold cry cuts
Goodbye, goodbye, Bye!
Red Kite
The river, bridged by
A road and a red kite, marks
The confluence point
Wood Pigeon
Gathering twigs, you
Build a willow tree house in
View from my window
Seagulls
Three seagulls scull by
One calling ‘Stroke!’ as they fly
A blue summer sky
Swallows
Swallows turn sharply
Sizing up the summer fields
Wing spans set square now
Swifts
Above the house, there!
The needle song of swift flight
Threading through the sky
Birds at Bishop’s Palace, Wells
Pen and her cygnets
Evening light on calm water
Following her home
Heron
Heron flies above
The old stone ramparts, herald
For the palace walls
Robin
Under the old yew
In the gloaming you watch me
Small red sentinel
Find my Bird haiku book for sale on Amazon here.
Breakfast with the birds
A pair of swallows
Perched on the telephone line
Call to say they’re here
Late afternoon
Willow sheds its down
Windblown to a lullaby
Sung by the goldfinch
This new collection of my poems is now available in a paperback format on Amazon Books. Click here to find it!
On subjects ranging from dreams and meditations to walking through local landscapes and towns, the author has created this omnibus edition of her lyric poems to celebrate turning sixty. This thoughtful and evocative collection celebrates everyday life and nature within the UK and acts as a diary for the poet’s inner life.
‘Stop for a second and hear the poem of your heart singing here and now.’
April
Two woodpigeons couched
Atop the blackthorn eating
The spent Spring blossom
On Gardening
Little goldcrest caught
Out the corner of my eye
Both searching for Spring
The chuckling hedge
Green shoulders shaking with glee
As Blackbirds shuck jokes
Dandelion clock
Goldfinch slides along the stalk
Counting down the seeds
March Morning
In the willow tree
Under a Van Gogh sky a
Robin paints in song
Goldfinches
Five feisty finches
Fill the golden willow boughs
With red hot trouble!
Powder puffs, dusted
Gold in the golden sunlight
Catkin and goldfinch
On the Spring Equinox
Now the day rises
Green leaves unfurl to greet her
And birds sing her name
Magpie
Four magpies fighting
In the road, oblivious
To me passing by
Magpie finds long stick
Jackdaw wants it, sky scuffle!
Fight, flight, Magpie wins
Robin
In the blackthorn boughs
Robin; red lantern on branch
Among the blossom
Goldfinch
Goldfinches riff free
Jazz. Syncopated beats on
Bare willow branches
Marsh Harrier
Gold wings in late sun
Struck from Thor’s hammer, bright streak
Of talons and beak
Starling Murmuration
Front row gathering
We wait for the performance
A winter ballet
Sky whale! Sky whale! Swan!
Starlings flow shapes across sky
Nature’s movie show
Find more of my birdwatching haiku here:
I am delighted to release this new omnibus of my lyric poems, pulled from fifty years of poetry writing, on subjects ranging from dreams and mediations to walks through local landscapes, art and nature.
‘Instead, I am reflected as I am in the silver puddles
Imperfectly reduced to wiggly lines and shifting shapes
Drenched full of light and singing with wild birdsong’
(poem excerpt from Freedom 2017)
Now available as a Kindle Edition eBook on Amazon here.
