Tag: Summer

The Island City

This sky darkens

Heat oppressive

Along the avenue

A leaf falls to the street

Cats forgo territorial rights

Stretched out immodestly on neighbouring walls as only cats can

Silence lays on silence

Doubled like thick cream

This silence flows into every pore

Lays as a cushion

Now a blackbird lets loose a burst of evensong

Children’s playful talk rises softly along the backyards

They sit out on the kerb-stones, feet in the gutter dust

From the main road, several streets back, a police siren splits the heavy air

We wait

Rose petals, hollyhocks, the fresh rosemary leaves float, held soft on the humid pillow

We wait

Light diffuses

Golden beneath these glowering clouds

An aircraft rumble

Like thunder

We listen, keener

Was it thunder?

Goosebumps rise to a sudden downdraft

We wait

And wait

In the silence

We wait

.

CLP 07/07/2019

Seasonal Affective Disorder

A long mood cycle

That goes up and down each year

Here it starts in May

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder-sad/#

n.b. SAD is a serious mental health condition that diminishes life quality. It is triggered in many instances by the reduction of natural light during the winter months. Those of us who find ways to fill each winter with distractions put ourselves at risk of low mood, after hopes and dreams are left dashed when the season ends. Two thoughts: 1) If you don’t like the challenge and associated risk of losing an occasional match, do not support a football team; 2) If you choose to support a football team, enjoy your summer without it, appreciating all the beauty and happiness that this lighter, warmer season brings every day of the week.

CLP 16/05/2019

On the Field

Man versus Nature

Blades of steel v. blades of grass

Cricket’s the winner

.

n.b. The smell of cut grass releases various plant chemicals into the air. They signal the start of the English cricket season, even though there are weeks to the first coin toss and the first delivery.

In the picture above the light green patch of grass is the hallowed turf of a cricket square.

CLP 14/03/2019

May Day, Bognor Regis

Pink

petals wild blown

accumulate in drifts

fill gutters,

kerbs billow into puffed up pillows.

 

Bared bottom leaves tilt up

and wiggle, pale undersides

frolic nude.

 

Baited by sunlight,

naked limbs are dared

to risk exposure

so piercing beams,

when whisked up

with sea-cooled gusts,

buff white skin

pink.

 

CLP  01/05/2018