A craggy shadow

The quiet hour before dawn

Turn toward the face

Each day, for ten years

I have explored a word world

Still so much to find

Between winter storms

We perch among the brambles

To recall our song

Dawn breaks on cold shores

Blasted sand whipped sand with salt spray

Carrys cares away

While the sun goes down

On these familiar old hills

Memories intertwine

In the mountain’s lea

There’s nowhere I’d rather be

Stars are all I see

How do flowers know

How soon spring will reappear

And bring a new year?

High above she waits

Scanning the brushwood for prey

I escape interest

Underneath the pines

Will I make it home by nine?

Distant church bells chime

I thought computers

Were supposed to take our jobs

Not replace our art

Sinking in the mud

Washed up as the river floods

A pale reflection

Though I’m on the road

The ending seems further off

With each heavy step

The bridges we build

Will rust away, collapse, decay

The river’s the way

A leaf on a tree

Just a drop in the snow sea

A stone in the scree

River ebbs and flows

Between cedar roots and knees

Whispers hauntingly

Last year’s leafy moult

Curls up into sodden mould

I will join their folds

Between day and night

Our future pasts walk the park

And ripple the lake

Rivers meet the sea

The sun greets the horizon

Inevitably

You’re still standing here

Even after all these years

You’re the same, I’ve changed