What a mystery
It is to exist
~
Life passing
Like a surprising mist
~
Rising over the hills
Revealing sights
~
More wonderful
More beautiful still.
~
Words and Thoughts, for Life
What a mystery
It is to exist
~
Life passing
Like a surprising mist
~
Rising over the hills
Revealing sights
~
More wonderful
More beautiful still.
~
A bullfinch perched
Right outside my window
~
They are so shy
This was a notable occurring
~
And my heart lifted
Just to watch him for a moment
~
With his bright red body
And rich black head
~
These unplanned revelations
The greatest part of my learning.
~
Image – A fleeting glimpse of a bullfinch, Morchard Bishop, December 2024

A Moment to Glide
A moment to glide
while the wind’s favourable
and the air is free
~
Like joy, sensation,
spontaneity.
~
Image: Red Kite over The Stiperstones, Shropshire

This egret
And these Devon hills
~
And the view across
The estuary
~
Light flooding like the tide
From oceans of sky
~
The moment of beauty
Is a mystery.
~
Photograph: Egret at Topsham, Devon – November 2024

The buzzard flying away
Turning to look at me
~
Behind him
The infinite blue sky
~
As if in his freedom
He had greater depths than me
~
In his affinity
With what is on high.
~
Photograph – buzzard, Morchard Bishop, Devon, December 2024

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.
