Another 30 Days Wild-ish

01

A cold, damp start 

good for the slugs and snails.

02

On a cold, dark night 

vague impressions of a forgotten summer.

03

Half-term 

observing the Wild 

through mist and double-glazing.

04

Love-in-the-mist, purple wisteria:

direct action and mutual aid 

enjoyed in ordinary trees and gardens.

05

Basho by the roadside 

Bukowski by the bedside:

each wild in his own way.

06

Swifts gliding high 

in the Himalayan-blue sky.

07

Storms forecast, darkening sky 

planes thunder overhead.

08

09

Bees prowling among the flowerheads 

a heron swoops across the pond, but circles off.

10

11

Floating after swimming 

water soft and supportive all around.

12

The Great White Wonder 

playing fast and loose with his own classics:

then in comes my wild one
with her own song.

13

I love the landscape, because it is so sincere.

It never cheats me.

It never jests.

It is cheerfully, musically earnest.

I lie and rely on the earth.

Thoreau

14

Into the forest of Johann Sebastian Bach.

15

Cedars at the mercy of wind

Are often very much troubled,

Often they are overthrown.

Set your ideas in front of God,

To hostile barking pay no heed:

That’s not what his word lays down.

BWV 150

16

The scent of some flowers 

is just a change in the air.

Today’s soundtrack is Fallen Angels 

and the Basement Tapes.

17

18

Wandering in the Edgelands:

development there is filling in 

but also opening up.

19

Tonight’s damp air has the softness of water
like swimming

but the swifts just keep on darting around up there.

20

Strawberry Moon behind those purple clouds:

it’s peeped out once to remind me I’d forgotten it was there.

The later, Full Moon Rising: beyond words 

apparently not noticed by many of the busy passers-by.

21

The strong smell of elderflower 

a blackbird keeping an eye on his mate

and in the background Uncle Bob singing ‘it had to be you’.

22

Taking in the colour, shape and markings of a leaf 

looking up and seeing the seedpods down beneath

then further into the depths of the tree:

breath-taking complexity of a great city.

23

And then the heavens opened
how wild will the voters be?

24

At least the weather’s cleared 

cool, but with sunny spells
the calm after the storm, or before it?

25

How to deal with slugs and snails 

a hail storm two inches deep
then Mozart’s Requiem to thunderous applause.

26

What turmoil in the garden 

wreckage everywhere
we’ll have to wait to see what Mother Earth can do.

27

So very cold this afternoon 

a most unpleasant month of June.

28

What’s it like out there?

29

Every place is a gateway 

to the beyond within your mind.

30

Just a few minutes of hail
I’ll be clearing up for weeks.