HOPE RISING   

The silent night
Echoes only
To the sound of wings
Slapping against water.

The frozen air
Crackles
As pearly birds fly
Into the rising sun.

Hope flexes
Its own wings
As it sets out
Into the world.

       ©2020 Gwen Grant

DISCONTINUED LOVER

This was the night when the heart was broken,
When stars collided and fell into gardens,
Fell into dark streets and lamplit highways,
Into houses with slammed doors and rooms
Full of emptiness,
Where shadows walked in perfect safety,
With no-one there to tread on them.

Outside, the yellow light from the tall street lamp
Threw gold over the green bushes and leaves,
Over the leaves dripping greenness into the darkness.
And search as you might,
No spilt blood could be found on the ground.
Spilt only in the heart of the discontinued Lover.

Who whispered and sighed,
Lamented and cried,
At how suddenly everything was lost and broken.
Perfectly willing to grieve for ever.
Wake up!  Look at the calendar.
Your play day will soon be over.
Madness to waste the eyes, the heart, that willing body,
For what is now a shimmering chimera.

Best to see how even the darkest leaf is etched with gold.

Just get going.

                                                 © 2019 Gwen Grant

 THE OUTSIDE CAT

The outside cat
Has no time for us
Anymore.
Scorning the food
Put out for him,
In bowls with C.A.T.
Printed right around them.

This cat ignores
Each of his beds.
One in the greenhouse,
One in the shed,
Ready for him
To shelter in.

He’s done.
Spring’s come!

Parading down
The garden path,
With his rusty growl
Proclaiming he is no
Domestic cat,
But an Emperor.

We all ignore the fact
That he sleeps in the flower pot
When it suits him.

        ©2021 Gwen Grant.

When there were goats in the paddock, the big one, and he was
really big, was very aggressive. He bashed down our fence and
stalked into the garden. When I tried to shoo him back onto the
grass, he lowered his head, then started to rattle his feet at me.
There was a lot more of him than of me so I backed carefully away.
While he was there with his little company of goats, he went
exactly where he pleased. I found him very scary. He’s the closest
to the Great God Pan I have ever seen. Now we have a flock of
sheep who follow anyone who comes to take a short cut.
But they are absolutely non-aggresive, for which I am truly thankful! 


         GOAT IN THE MOONLIGHT        

The big goat’s ghost is in the paddock,
He must have forgotten to take it with him,
For when I look out of the window at midnight,
I see him stomping down the grass,
Looking for trouble.

Smashing everything that stands in his way,
Rearing up against the apple tree,
Ripping the apples from the branches
With huge brown teeth.

Just as I think of banging on the glass
To scare him away, he sees me,
His wicked eyes glinting in the moonlight,
Full of hate, full of the desire to kill.
Starting towards me, his great body moving
As fast as a shadow blown in the wind.

I am deathly afraid.

Until the moonlight dissolves him,
Turning the night back to normal.
I wonder where he has gone,
Knowing there is no comfort for me
Until I know exactly
Where he has found a place to hide.

                        ©2021 Gwen Grant.

 

I am very lucky where I live because I can still see the night sky –
just . I used to walk all these roads when I was a girl. Then they
were pitch black and the stars were brilliant.

SHUFFLING THE STARS

We shuffle the stars
Out of their places
Whenever we need
A new world
To surround us.               

Filling the heavens
With so many stars,
We create
A canopy of silver,
In whose shining
We see our own reflections
Touched with glory. 

At last,
Becoming wholly 

    Distinctive individuals. 

                     © 2018 Gwen Grant