Avocets on the estuary
The sheer sparkle of the sun
On black and white feathers
Proclaiming the beauty
Of flocking together.

Words and Thoughts, for Life
Avocets on the estuary
The sheer sparkle of the sun
On black and white feathers
Proclaiming the beauty
Of flocking together.

There’s a new kind of silence
On the Lawley this morning
~
An inner kind of silence
On the Lawley this morning
~
As if a new kind of consciousness
Was slowly dawning
~
That has suffered and died
And has risen again
~
Here on the Lawley
This morning.
~
Photograph shows views from the Lawley

The breeze brings blessing
From hills and from sky
~
As if inspiration
Were the true vocation
~
Of the soul
Seeking harmony.
~
The photograph shows Corndon Hill above the heather of The Stiperstones, Shropshire.
On Stiperstones
The gorse is out
~
The heather’s purple
And there’s the shout
~
Of green
Bursting everywhere
~
I tread the way
And breathe the air
~
That’s freshest
Nearly anywhere –
~
And walk on blessed Stiperstones
Without a single care.
~
Rowan tree on the western side of The Stiperstones, Shropshire

At Pontesford and Plealey
Where the meadows flow so freely
And you wonder can you really
Love another place so dearly –
~
The cattle stand
And you have found
A solace for your soul
~
Where earth rises
Up so greenly
~
And all is made
To seem so whole
So supremely.

At Wroxeter
Sleep Roman women
Roman men
~
Under the eyes
Of God
And Wrekin
~
And Caradoc hill
Looks down so still
On all of humanity so lowly
~
Over the slowly
Sleeping souls of Romans,
Us, and of the Lawley.
~

What a mystery
It is to exist
~
Life passing like a surprising mist
Rising over the hills
~
Revealing sights more wonderful
More beautiful still.
Inspired by walks on the Long Mynd in Shropshire…
~
Here the kite
And the buzzard cry
~
And woodpeckers swoop
And dragonflies roam
~
And all is green
Except for the sky
~
So infinitely blue
And there you
~
Feel at home
Where birds and insects roam
And there doesn’t need to be a why.
~

Today I heard
My first chiffchaff of spring
And the warmer days
Have put the buzzard on the wing
Crying for the light
~
And the rabbits run
Across the road
And the stream sings soothingly
Its watery load.
~

Buzzard, around Wroxeter
I was recently walking on The Stiperstones, early in the morning. It was frosty, and the sun was just rising, and the wildness of this beautiful ridge in Shropshire came beautifully into view as two crows came to settle on the crags that form the hill’s jagged silhouette…

~
Wild
Amongst the Stretton hills
~
Rolling
With buzzards and kites
~
Wild
The fields that patch the plain
~
With lambs that skip
And golden grain
~
Wild
The rocks of Stiperstones
~
Older than time
And dead mens’ bones
~
Wild
The brooks
~
Where dippers play
Kingfishers dart
~
Wild the call
Of nature’s art
~
Wild the call
To human hearts.
~