Your hills rise and fall

While other giants lie still

We wait for Merlin

Though as the tide turns

The sea stands silent and still

Currents churn below

Silently we stalk

Mudlarking flats and shallows

Vulturous applause

If each part of me

Is replaced in seven years

Am I still the same?

Keep the fungi sweet

With crisp apple juice to eat

And not too much heat

Which would you rather

To feel both joy and sadness

Or nothing at all?

Search from West to East

From sea marsh to spreading shore

What should I look for?

How does a tree sound?

What music do meadows play?

When do brambles sing?

Another season

Passing away as the sun

Turns grass into hay

All those swaying stalks

Cut, creased and compressed into

A bundle of light

I devour sweetness

Create boozy bubbles that

Turn sorrow to joy

These days never end

We hold them tightly in our heart

Incorruptible

Beans can’t grow beeches

Apple trees can’t grow peaches

Can I grow either?

Morning sun arise

Wipe all the stars from our eyes

None of them can shine

I reach out my hand

You cut it off. Understand

The other stays back

All the robin knows

Is where to find his food and

Where to build his home

Follow where you went

A course that’s broken and bent

Slippery old Trent

Am I country side?

How wild must a life become

To be respected?

Teased by towering banks

Coursing through the landscapes’ veins

Down tread, stream, turn, wind,

Ride the rapid flow

Run aground in the shallows

Let our troubles go

The new footpath goes

Underneath my rusted steps

Numbering the days

Silt turns sea to soil

Seeds grow where seaweed once rolled

Can trust be rebuilt?

Thistles dominate

Unkempt banks of no man’s land

Good enough for me

Through empty chambers

Echoed thoughts return unfilled

Back the way we came