Long Coppice Poems

Deep in a silva of the Emerald Isle there hides a peculiar coppice,
Shaped in a spiral labyrinth which is seen only on the summer solstice. 

As the sun rises to its highest of tides and...

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In village Taraigh
smoky limbs - gaunt grey
arms akimbo
twirl an' sweep from stumpy stacks,
peep faces from chimneys
to dark night falling
whilst 'draggled' owl cedes to instincts
navigation near done, over
from-by this old beast dying

was time
when ancients told
an owl's...

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The morning broke pragmatically
As the warmth kissed the dew goodbye.
And the thunder clouds who haunted nigh
Had fled and left an open sky.
Where an aged thrasher voiced a song of love
That rained down from up on...

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the sun is on its knees,
disease leaks out their eyes; alive, 
it fans the drain’s release;
a holy light complies; it dries and-
burned and held and spined.
their molting hair entwined; divine all- 
whole in scar and...

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With descent and ascent in every walking steps
Treading through the coppice thorns and comforting steppes 
Being drowned and floated into many mighty oceans 
Bearing the torment of chides and humiliations 
Getting browbeaten and vanquished by...

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Big Ben strikes ten, depart Kings Cross.
Squeal of tight wheel, where lines criss-cross.
Clickety-clack. Clickety clack.
Now heading north-bound on fast track.

Leave city sprawl in grey and grime 
for now we're on East Coast mainline 
in rural...

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Folks in Old Coppice have been heard to say,
Sometimes a swirling evening mist comes down,
And glimpsed as in a waking dream they may
See wraith-like figures wandering on the lawn
In silent converse, they're so pale and...

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Amidst forest sheath, shelters a castle once coppice
Yielded promises once kept now relinquished roughness
Shadows lace the ferns, cracks, and emboss moss; orchestral 
Pieces crawl upon the ancestral stone castle walls
Noiseless dark and foreboding hypnotic mistral...

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Amid falling leaves, 
     Beneath the rasping trees,
          Nature sounds
            ...

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My father’s timber array arrived on an 
overloaded Diamond Reo flatbed. 
It dumped oak scraps, leafless dead-woods, 
inspiring last metamorphosis to 
warming fires come winter’s weather. 

Empty, truck leaves then heaves 
into a scrubby alley...

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Romance stirs in the midnight crimson glow, 
on a patch of Ash of Roses Absinthe.
Blind with passionate love the petals go,
encircle a halo without absence. 

Breathless, underneath the coppice and heath,
where nature plays, drinking in...

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Amidst trees cover; shelters shadow, lace 
Ferns, and flora. A citadel's embrace
Once coppice now cracks, and cushion soft moss. 
Liana crawls upon the stone, exhausts 
Castle walls for access to the filter 
Of sunlight, sweet...

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Staring at the face,the pool where Narcissus
Pined and made a star burst to tears
There I stand, where Echo`s sad but delicious
Plea for affection fell on deaf ears.

Treading through oblivious tracks
Lost in blue`s poisoned pinions
Burdens on...

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I meander through verdant valley
where meadows collide in windswept jade,
hillsides bathe in summer sunshine
and oceans of clouds, commit to shade.

Moorland sheep laze in woolly clusters
creating footpaths upon the hill,
busy hedgerow a rural city
scar of an...

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It is Christmas in a pine grove
Holding vigil in a foxhole
Not an atheist to be found
As artillery shakes the ground
The pines adorned with crystal flecks
And pinecones as ornaments
A cardinal in all its red
Sits atop Tannenbaum's...

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Cherry blossom blooms from delicate bough,
Trickling waters cascade into stream,
Columns of grass in thicket in growth,
Watchful eyes embrace from Selene.

Fluorescent beams flicker through leaves,
Dance and sway as they fall to earth,
Witness to all in intricate...

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Oranges

Frost in Florida once, I planted an orange tree
among thousands of other orange trees in an orchard
when in Florida.
The coppice belongs to a friend of mine who invited 
me to plant the tree a day...

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Gray hills of impenetrable coppice draw down clouds in misty rain.
Limbs and leaves weigh down with invited teardrops that keeps their soul alive.
Forest floor whose dress adorn with verdant ferns, shrubs, and young trees.
Picturesque waterfall's...

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beneath dusk twilight
briskness of the night
off a bumpy quiet foot
path, deeper into
root of virgin forest
towards narrow a patch.

breathless, beneath
thick mixed coppice
nightingales croon,
nature sleeps.

moon views with romantic
pleasure upon scintillating
obsidian hue lake.

natures breath held
briefest of hesitations
fish breaks...

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Silent giants  oxygen machines
The lungs of mother nature
Wilderness  wonderlands
Coppice, copse, or just a stand
Thicket, timberland
Parks for playing hide and seek
Natures vast expanse
A land of plants and trees galore
A place of peace and quiet
Not...

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