POEM OF THE MONTH

Sedgeford October

______somewhere mellow between
_________the end of the overblown blackberries
and
the start of the harvested leaves
fused flies
_______________on clinical sills
__hint at bleached sun
and
in the hedges
_________________thistle winds to come

to eyes trained on histrionic heights
_________of Welsh adolescence,
this stubborn serenity,___________
these mediaeval colours
are
_____endlessly reassuring:
a great grey blanket billowing unbroken from the North Pole
______wild chords of geese in its folds;
________the flinty, dependable noun
__________behind mists of adjectives

© Gareth Calway 2002

Of my own poems, this is one of my favourites. It was published in "The Rialto", a Norwich-based magazine in the late 80s/ early 90s and also in "Poet's England: 16, Norfolk" in 1993. When the geese go over, you really feel part of wider horizons up here in Norfolk. This poem also hangs in calligraphy form in my village local.