166

dark around edges
of thought and understanding
wooden lads alone

165

new straw for old foe
horse readied for snaers return
a field full of snow

164

dinosaur or knight
tree acquires horn or lance
from a dead neighbour

163 late equaliser

enjoying riches
enduring hardships - not long
til death makes us one

162 touch

fog makes a dreaming
of man where trees meet hill hand
balances a star
horse snorts foil around apple
touch in a disappeared world

161

horse so big apple
so small your breath snorts my hand
sweet drools between feet

160

sparrows in hawthorn
decorative smudges vote
hope in autumn wind

159 rain horses

horses withstanding
nights of rainfall to endure
days of rainfall stand
with the air of acceptance
beyond humans behind walls

158

the ducks marched the road
in the field they drilled for food
at dusk tore the sky

157 whoopers at torrisdale

you brought us iceland
in white plumage watchful eyes
we gave you terrier
unseen until departure
arc of breath taking beauty

156

quiet like walking
through sleep autumn hills circled
by distant corvids

155 is

migrating daughter
she too will sleep eat and laugh
then bring back our sun

154 field

a life is one side
or the other then slaughter
of muted longing

153

no more counting house
you stand in light and darkness
calling existence

152

four folded deer one
cock pheasant a wood a stream
unwelcome me - flee

151

light between tall trees
a bird calling into sky
is enough to know

150

something hides from us
behind our eyes beyond dreams
a good enough life

149 in the hills

in the hills sweetness
lark song purple heather tides
elemental calm -
and bitterness, erosion
sheep without shepherds, people

148 walking the dog

swallows swooping rye
encircling so closely
their wings our eyelids

147

ocean pregnant land
quietly unsuspecting
the birthing of death

146

it hangs this summer
still green but no greener edged
in winter's silence

145

cars imitate sea
on hillside i imagine
a life of meaning

144

deep stillness holds me
between glimpsed light and birdsong
alone with the trees

143

swallows encase me
in their african spirals
we all far from home

142 cally car park

waiting for the day
when the birds will stop singing
nothing remembered

141 john knox pulpit

pulpit for the sheep
path worn by a thousand feet
heaven still in clouds

140 inside the outside

here hills close to sky
everything animate
not dying inside
cocooned in tiny spaces
behind walls and glass
reflections of lost people
desperate to touch
the real dance its heartbeat
so here wind cools me
larks tug my eyes to the sky
earth moves me birdsong
its enchantment but heartfelt
liquid not solid
if i stand still its pumping
if i walk its a river

139 other

i know you by heart
wanting like mine, believing
in fading colour

138

shaming my low mood
fox cub in bluebell wood hunched
to nibble horse shit

137 hare

I saw you look back
brown trunk wide eyes - belonging -
at alienation

136

bluebells exciting
radiant light filled ink pools
around my lost feet

135

I lie unfolding
stone thoughts for my stone wall - not
really there at all

134 Stag

our startled eyes locked
my conventions your nature
barely awake dog
attempts horizontal lynch
hooves on stone fill up the dawn

133

cottage surrounded
tidal deer ghosting upon
the everyday

132

heaving and lurching
rock pool moods hollowed with brine
moon roams in dark seas

131 gregs loan

walking in horseshoes
of winter's mud called uphill
by birdsong for spring

130

it comes and it goes
a world imagined around
sunset and sunrise

129

quietened by rain
winter holds breath around a
horizon of trees

128

my night a needle
bowlby monkey that clings on
pierced with confusion