From the apple tree

Young robin looks down on me

Inquisitively

Briar and beggar

Bodger’s highway, badger’s trap

Bridle the old ways

Climb hill, cross valley

There only to lose myself

Back where I began

Fragile canopy

Relents as the days grow short

Keep to the shadows

Rain fall rain fall rain

Make the grass grow green again

Let us embrace change

Though I try to reach

Even the edge of a cloud

It’s never enough

Away to the North

Gnarled creatures stalk the valley

From lair to hedgerow

Now further downstream

The water up to my neck

I let it take me

Each stone in the heap

Balancing everyone’s needs

As high as it’s deep

I return to dust

While the robots replace my

Inadequate love

If I climb atop

The highest peak. Would you still

Be above my reach

Sweet gentle river

Be unleavable river

Carry me river

Silver in the pines

Smokey shadows hang rose clouds

Over dusky glades

Against the currents

Swoop between ash and hornbeam

Flying a white flag

Fiery tongues align

Licking the horizon dry

As the smoke clouds rise

Tails taut, the line caught

Boom and jib, we luf and lift

Gybe and tack, we’re back

Heat sets autumn seeds

Amber floods through the valley

Elven light has come

Life under canvas

Firelight, dark skies and freedom

I don’t want a home

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?