POETRY

Poetry written by local poets: If you have written poems and would like them displayed please contact us.

DROUGHT IN AFRICA

Vultures idly swirling patterns through the empty clouds
Dust devils dancing upwards with leaves like crinkled shrouds

Hardy beetles sleep below, waiting for the cool of night
Heat-waves shimmering like rivers - mimicking in spite

Bones so white lie scattered in the rippled wind-blown sand
The spoors of long-dead beasts zig-zagging across the land

Sheet lightning in the distance mocks the jagged dry horizon
Empty promises of storms it’s just a pantomime they put on

Wait. The thunder nears, shadows form like rolling waves
Dust rises up in joyful scent as rain comes down and saves

Jo-anne Pritchard, Fleet, Hampshire

Dedicated to my beloved David, who did so much to save lives during the 1980’s drought in Zimbabwe.

MIRROR
Mirror hangs upon the wall.
Tells the truth, or not at all.
Is that me? I’m heard to say.
What-ever happened to yesterday?

I do not feel the way I look,
The final chapters of my book.
My throat swells with saddened thought.
Of all those years, so bitterly fought.

What was it for? Why was it so?
It seems so quick, so fast to go.
Those youthful hopes, now long gone by.
Leave nothing now, but knowing sigh.

Allan Gibson (inspired by Dads poem) Dec 1997

NATURE DIES

We travel by train

Sitting on wheels

Ignoring green fields

Where the daffodil kneels

We trundle on concrete

Laid for our needs

Over the lost beauty

We refer to as weeds

We suffer the jibes

And loss of pride

Don't notice the meadows

We just try to hide

Our lives are so fruitless

With no blossom before

No thoughts for the gifts

God gave with his chore

SPRING

The beauty of the blossomed bough

And the resurrection of the daffodils

In my heart creates the mood of Spring

And in its perfection the love it brings

AGG