Long Coltsfoot Poems

- 2016 -

- JANUARY -

A freezing cold evening

Where the stars shining bright

With frost blade flanks

From mouth and nose steam

In the clear silence

White untrodden snows

Nature's frozen pulse

Sleep like a little baby

One gracious moon

After the night the...

Read More

In a house high on a hill an old man grows weak, many years have gone, he lays in his old bed,
Back in the day, a dashing young officer with a brilliant red uniform he...

Read More

IN THE BLUEBELL WOODS AT SHOTLEY BRIDGE

Shotley Bridge woods must  no longer exist
Though I looked for them often as an adult.

Eventually  I stopped looking fior the woods.
However, I often recalled them in my...

Read More

                                  ...

Read More

Can't seem to get off to sleep tonight, thoughts buzzing around my old head,
It's dark and quiet, the cat has gone out and the street lights have gone out too,
The odd car passes by maybe...

Read More

Can't seem to get off to sleep tonight, thoughts buzzing around my old head,
It's dark and quiet, the cat has gone out and the street lights have gone out too,
The odd car passes by maybe...

Read More

THE   FLOWERS   WELCOME   THE   QUEEN 



Spring returns  to my garden and the  Golden Queen
Once  again  warms  everything she touches.
A little girl ...

Read More

Nicky, the neighbor’s dog, drags a road kill home.
A beautiful pelt like those fox shoulder garments women wore in the
      forties.
But the head is crushed beyond recognition—maybe it’s a fox and that’s 	
      why Nicky, a canine,...

Read More

The laugh like cry of the April woodpecker happy in the early spring,
And the dry harsh note of the Jay, awaken the forests and everything,
The dusky wings of rook’s glance in the sun, they are...

Read More

The temperature fluctuates between mild spring days to rain or even snow. Nature wakes up, and the buds slowly sprout on the trees. Coltsfoot pop up as yellow rubber balls, charming yellow flowers. I find...

Read More

As March sets in people are eager to work in their rural gardens and fields,
The earth turns up fresh and mellow and there is beauty in its very blackness,
Flowers are fast springing in the boarders,...

Read More

As March sets in people are eager to work in their rural gardens and fields,
The earth turns up fresh and mellow and there is beauty in its very blackness,
Flowers are fast springing in the boarders,...

Read More

Early one Spring morning, I joyfully walked the verdant hills,
among lemon tinted blooms of coltsfoot, swaying in spills.
Their beauty seemed to drift in a gloriously scented display,
so enticing that honeybees and butterflies visited that day.

Dawn...

Read More

I value the ability to live independently
Most sacred to me
is the freedom and my health
- every breath of dawn, is like a diamond
I open the window ... just for a little while
- no children are...

Read More

Blowball and cankerwort,
words born from a common tongue.
English is most practical
when it is rustic and colloquial.
Lions tooth, priests crown,
moles salad and pee-a-bed.

‘Swine snout’ snorts loud upon the page.
The yarrow-yellow flowers last for hours
then overnight turn...

Read More

Blossom of baby's breath,soft white gorse,crusted yellow, weeping willow rush patterned lace pastures a pastel green.Buttercup,daisy&comely cowslip mingle
&mix in fellowship swaying pelts of grass with purple vetch & ribwortplantain, clover in English rain.Scabious,burnets buttefliesand bees...

Read More

Late April and only
coltsfoot—Tussilago farfara—breaking leaf litter.
Our daffodils, peonies and crocuses
are also making signs.

April is the cruelest month, I forget why.
A sweet slow Spring
no sudden changes
each leg and leaf unfolds deliberately. You can't miss it.

New...

Read More

FLIGHTS OF FANCY PHRASIS 3
Blossom of baby's breath,soft white
gorse,crusted yellow, weeping willow
rush patterned lace pastures a pastel green.
Buttercup,daisy&comely cowslip mingle
&mix in fellowship swaying pelts of grass
with purple vetch & ribwort plantain,clover
in English rain.Scabious,burnets butteflies
and bees...

Read More

Once were badgers in leafy dale, 
once were rabbits and foxes too,
once were pheasants in shining copse where cuckoopint and coltsfoot grew.

Once were songbirds in privet hedges, 
once were bluebells for mile upon mile,
once were...

Read More

If our springs are uncertain we enjoy fine sunny days
A feeling for spring, even when bad, is always good
Such is the opening of April, not winter nor summer
It is spring fickle and chilly a spring...

Read More

Blow-ball and Cankerwort,
words born from a common tongue.?
Lions tooth, ?
Priests Crown, ?
Moles Salad and piss-a-bed.?
?
English is most practical ?
when it is rustic and colloquial.

‘Swine Snout’ snorts loud upon the page.
The yarrow-yellow flowers last for hours
then...

Read More

Lost my energy... tired and exhausted in my body
  My longing drives me like a high fever
  Just the thought .... feel a bit lightheaded
  Am I sick - should I see...

Read More

Don’t let the worms touch the brittle petals,
Just blow them to my empty palms
As gentle dream. I can no longer settle
Be lonely as a leafless stalk.

And coltsfoot not roses,
Just coltsfoot surround me
And nothing comes close
As...

Read More

The River

      The swirling stream in slow eddies flows along, 
      In bright sun flecked ripples the Grey Heron wades.
     ...

Read More