Hope for 2021

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When the world feels dark bring a Torch
Let the Torch be brightly lit
Let it illuminate the darkest corners of Earth
May Earth play its part and forever spin
For a spinning Wheel gathers no more Covid
And Covid will be killed by the Needle
And through the eye of that very Needle
Will Nature work her magic
And bring us all a Spring to recall
Life renewed in Hope
For ‘Hope is the thing with Feathers
… Which never stops at all.‘

VERSE – WHB: Dec.2018 . . . [ With acknowledgement to Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) ]

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As The Year Ends

WHB : Pen & Ink – 2018

AS THE YEAR ENDS

Dark the swollen river runs
Under the bridge’s shades of grey.
Slate sky condemns the passive scene
Draining colour from the day.

Tree silhouettes outline my view
Their winter ribs bared to the frost
December bids the old year gone
With no regrets for what is lost. 

The year expires; bid it goodbye, 
It brought distress, re-kindled fears,
It promised much it failed to give,
Left little hope and many tears.

So now, in hope of better times,
Tomorrow holds the future’s key.
New perspectives flood my view
Blue skies as far as I can see.

Escape From Reality

Photo: WHB – Thames Sculler: Dec.2020

Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on the deep blue Thames
Heading to I know not where
But joyous to be just there

A winter’s day, With time to spare
No promises to keep
I’ll tone my body, air my lungs,
Before I fall asleep

I am content
I’ve found a place
In silent space
Where life cannot torment

Photo: WHB – Thames Sculler: Dec.2020

Churchyard Leaves

Photo: WHB – Surrey 2020

CHURCHYARD LEAVES

Churchyard leaves
Blanket the dead;
Winter warmth
Of words unsaid.

Deep in their earth,
now ashes and dust,
Forgotten are fears
worries, mistrust.

Here where stillness
reflects on the past,
We meet with the future
Our questions unasked.

Photo: WHB – Surrey 2020

Three Haiku for a Closing Year

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November’s shadow
Casts a long and murky pall
Over a dark year.

December grows near,
Promising a silent end
To a stolen year.

Only spring brings hope,
And within its welcome arms,
The warmth of rebirth.

September’s Promise: Two Haiku

September tells me
As its green  leaves turn to gold
Spring will come again

 

The greens of Summer
Give way to Autumn’s bright golds
Promising the Spring

 

 

FEAR NO MORE THE HEAT OF THE SUN

Catch the sunlight
Enjoy its clutch
Keep its warmth
Savour its touch

For soon it will die
Its purpose served
Its welcome embrace
Was unreserved

The title is  taken from Shakespeare’s ‘Cymbeline’.)

 

Treenware

 

 Of a tree
transmogrified
the resurrected dead
felled to humanity’s purpose
nature sampled
purposed flotsam
birthed by inspiration
gathered and garnished
tortured timber
carved and hewn
pared and whittled
twisted turned and polished
into burled jewels
ornamental gems
passed over life re-modelled
re-moulded into a new existence
allowed to live again
in resurrected splendour
through the craftsman’s art

Time best-spent
in re-creating beauty
from death’s discarded bones

 

 

 

Indomitable

If you hit me I will bruise,
Cut me down, I’ll cry,
Take my limbs,
They’ll multiply,
Always I will death defy.

Fire and flood I will resist,
And never give up hope;
Eventually I’ll rejuvenate,
Whatever comes I’ll cope.

For Nature built me to succeed,
Never to give in;
Mutilate me, I will bleed,
But never will give in.

 

‘Rejuvenating Tree’ – Surrey, England … Photos: WHB – May 2020   ©

 

Nature’s Green Magician

‘The Green Man’ WHB – Pencil … 2020

If the world was sane,
If I could live again,
I’d choose to be a tree –
A sturdy oak for me.

And when I was that oak
The Green Man I’d invoke,
To be my guiding light –
Upright, downright, forthright.

For his eternal mission,
Nature’s Green Magician,
To nurture, guide, conserve,
Our future to preserve.