patting the earth tenderly into place

around each nameless seed.

Along the lane, the rain-washed body

of a hare, blackthorn flowering overnight.

Time to be turning in he thinks

as he gazes at a sowing of early stars

with eyes just the colour you remember.

Ridgeway

You are given this day – the road curving

empty and white in the sun, the sky a larkspur blue.

For the next few hours

the world will be utterly free from meaning,

a stone you kick for a mile

along a track that’s hard, but isn’t like bone.

No one will ask you to heal them or show them the way.

No one will bring you their dead.

It doesn’t matter if what you are walking towards

is heavy as bread – each day broken

in your own two hands

as the earth is broken spring after spring –

only that you are walking

through the fields of young wheat,

your spirit as light

as the eggshell you spot in the grass,

or the wind singing

over Blowing-Stone Hill.

*  *  *

Risen

Like the woman who wakes at dawn

to find herself three fields from home

my body is given to me like a flower –

the kind that stars the hedgerow every spring,

the kind I used to pick as a child

without thinking.

Perhaps if I keep very still and empty

I too will grow into stem, leaf, corona,

become the common wayside name for love.

The thought opens up in this early morning light

with such a wild sweetness

it could fill the whole house for a day.

NOTES

Among Women (10) and Blessed Art Thou (16): These titles come from the story of the Annunciation as told in St Luke’s Gospel, Ch. 1, v. 28: ‘And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.’

Enola Gay (19): This Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber became the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb as a weapon of war when, on 6 August 1945, it targeted the city of Hiroshima, Japan. The plane was named after Enola Gay Tibbets, mother of Paul Tibbets, the mission’s pilot.

Five Easy Pieces (21): A film directed by Bob Rafelson in 1970 and starring Jack Nicholson as a dropout from upper-class America.

Woman in Blue Reading a Letter (49): The title of a famous painting by the Dutch master, Johannes Vermeer (1632-75).

Morandi: Still Lives (52): Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964) was an Italian artist who specialised in still lives. Known as ‘il monaco’, the monk, due to his reclusive lifestyle, he famously limited his choice of still life objects to the unremarkable bottles, boxes, jars, jugs and vases that were commonly found in his everyday domestic environment.

Mrs Meakin Opens Her Window to the Larks (55): The title of a painting by Mary Newcomb (1922-2008) who spent much of her artistic life in Suffolk.

Early One Morning (56): The title of a well-known English folk tune dating back to the 18th century.

About the Author