November digging

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Still busy with trimming back, final weeding and tidying the garden, I was stopped in my tracks this morning by a little flock of nine long-tailed tits, angry and twittering over my intrusion on their garden visit. Best to retreat back indoors and watch their busy lives from our window.

As the cold winds set in and days grow ever shorter, a poem from our resident allotment poet arrived at my doorstep. Capturing the essence of the autumnal stillness, the changing light and the welcome song from the few remaining birds in our gardens, it was recorded on Wednesday down in the allotment. I urge you to read this outside, sitting perhaps on your garden bench? Or loitering, as dusk approaches, with a cup of tea in your hand…

November evening on the allotment

moonlight chill

Waxing gibbous moon
Titanium white

Silhouette trees
Mars black

Cloudscape archipelago
Of mauve and grey

A lone bat looping
On a vespertine ellipse

The old grey ratter
Maundering homeward

Leaves skitter
Like small rodents

As I close the latch gate
on Shipyard Lane
a robin is threading
A thin twist of melody
On the evening air

Phil Mullane

Image Credits: Brian Draper , Paula Kerr .

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2 COMMENTS

  1. Wonderful.

    Thank you for sharing, Abigail.
    There is a particular pleasure in reading poetry that captures our beautiful locality.

    Google found this by Phil –
    https://www.ryenews.org.uk/culture/tonights-moon

    Any recommendations for locally-inspired poems available to access through websites / buy – such as those written by Phil, and perhaps others ?

    There are several poetry groups in the area producing strong works –
    eg The collection that can be purchased at the Rye Harbour Discovery Centre and a few shops in Rye, such as Ethel Loves Me and Rye Bookshop – “New ways of looking at Rye Harbout Nature Reserve, an anthology of poems and pictures”.

    Thank you!

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