Keith Bickerstaffe Poet Verse

The Air Is Alive With Skylarks Singing Part 1

....inspired by 'Poem in October' by Dylan Thomas



The air is filled with skylarks singing
o'er the greening meadows and the pliant pasture,
crisp and clear, like God's first measure of
        a holy hymn.
                The air alive with
songs of praise, the gentle winds a sacred message,
the ocean sighing, gulls aloft on wings of prayer.
        His grand prescription,
                like a dream
that streams out from the pillows of the heavens.

I liked to wander by the sea shore,
skipping stones, disobeying laws of gravity.
A sudden shower would see me running
        fancy free,
                between the rain drops,
I cried 'Excelsior!' and set the hills alive;
I skittered, happy as a lamb on shaky legs
        and tumbled freely,
                without care,
'til gasping, I would stop to catch my breath.

The halcyon days of youth came true,
when I would race forever 'neath the tawny sun,
bedaubed in Autumn blood,
        the flame,
                a blend of hues
the likes of which would make a young boy doubly blind,
and lead him into kingdoms where the battlefields
        would blister scarlet,
                happy times
that made me see my childhood clearly.

The weather turned again, and shanties
high atop the hillside loomed like castles drifting
in the sea-blown mist, the noise of boats,
        their nets pulled,
                nudging at the jetty.
From the sand the village was a hazy spectre,
the chapel steeple peeking like Rapunzel's lair,
        her hair a daydream
                falling soft,
O fanciful imagination!

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