While my husband kissed me in our bed
Our cat would lounge on top and lick his head
No matter what gyrations that cat saw
All he did was pat us with his paws
The happy days of learning how to feel
How to entertain with spicy meals
Of walking by warm rivers hand in hand
Watching coots and moorhens ,washing pans
Buying an old kettle, then a house
Driving out to Ongar ,stubble fires
Smokey Essex cornfields, insects’ pyres
Driving down the Saxon Cliffs at Hythe
Soft teal Sea,Capel le Ferne, men’s eyes
Happy in a cottage in the wilds
I sang like some small bird, we walked for miles
Kersey where the ducks bathe in the street
Kissing in the hedges was so sweet
Getting our own garden, growing beans
Growing spinach, lettuce and snap peas
Picking our blackcurrants, making tea
Making jam from raspberries. yes please
This proves that when you marry you need pans
Cooking dinners talking with our friends
Wearing jeans and hair so long it flowed
My husband liked to brush it till it glowed
I dream some nights my hair is still like that
And how the cat slept with his paws in it
How his father died and mother grieved
Life is not all positive, we see.
On we went and love was what we grew
Though anger did rise up and strain the glue
First the cat died, then my man went too
Can’t I adopt a beast from Whipsnade Zoo?
Day: January 14, 2024
Beautiful nature photographs by Mike Flemming
http://home.btconnect.com/mike.flemming/butterfl.htm
Mike has been taking photos all his life but now has more time to do it.Why don’t you get a camera or use your phone and start a new hobby? I do it although I have no technical skills.Again my technical skills in art are not very good but I still like to try.
Essex UK.Drawing by Katherine
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But a prayer could ascend to its height.
Great Bardfield and Dunmow by meadows of blue
Linseed and poppies delight
Narrow lanes curving are leading us to
The Essex of Constable ‘s sight
At Manningtree swans jostle near the stone edge
I recall we have seen them in flight
Like a god might descend to fulfill an old pledge;
A humbling and marvellous sight.
In Dedham, all’s still and wisteria hangs
From a house with the door painted white.
The church was quite empty and no bell was rung
But a prayer could ascend to its height.
After the quiet of the village out here
The A12 was revealed as a blight
We crossed it then turned down a lane that was near
We drove home in the cool of the night.
Windmills not turning and churches not used
Yet a beauty to charm and delight
No mills as in Yorkshire,no hills to denude.
Long Melford and Eleigh ,oh wait!
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We know much more than we think
I should have studied cryptic crosswords first
Before I turn my mind to writing verse.
How could I bedazzle readers’ eyes
Hinting at the mysteries inside?
I should have studied Dante and John
Donne
Or Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson.
I should have gone to Eton or St Paul’s
then I could think in Greek by shadowed walls.
We have to make good use of all we know
Don’t keep crying out and calling More
Infinite the treasures of each mind
When like a little child we make designs.
On the seashore with the infants play
The grains of sand are infinite today
How my heart sings 