short-eared durham owl
meditating over the dale’s edge,
shadows the fields and folds
in elegant diurnal flight.

on windside,careful sight,
may swoop to prey,
and away.

your yellow broad-eyed look,
at once both sharp and distant,
holds me.
oh,silence,
oh,wind on green,
oh, earth,
sky.

immense your held vision;
sphere many centred
pied geometer of flight,
sketch your descent and ascent.

trees bunched by dry stone wall
call heart home.