Wednesday 22 August 2012

Serendipity

This is the theme for our next writers' meeting and I am attempting to write a poem. I have a friend, G, who has the most marvellous eye for spotting little 'treasures' and when she has found one she will then devote her time to researching what it is.

She photographed some of them and printed them off on one sheet, with a description of where she found each one and from that I have written a poem. This is the first draft of the poem. Writers' Group is not until the first Wednesday of September so I have plenty of time to revise. In the meantime I shall be interested to hear what you think.

A friend.

Wandering through the woods she finds
an owl pellet,
the brilliant feather of the jay,
the perfect skeleton of the wood mouse -
washed clean by the Summer's rain -
its tail stretched out like a string
of tiny beads.

Along the Thames foreshore,
gleaning at low tide -
a Jacobean wool seal,
bearing the king's crown.
And by the River Swale
a silver sixpence and
a silver thimble,
both shining in the mud.

Fossils, ammonites, sea urchins,
a message in a bottle,
beachcombings
all seem to fall into her lap.
Molehills, middens and rockfalls
draw her like iron to a magnet,
to find clay pipes, ink bottles,
flint scrapers, spindle whorls.

On drives in the country it is she
who spots
the long-tailed tit's nest in a winter tree.
A young dead badger by the road,
a buzzard hovering overhead,
a blackcock in a silver birch,
all draw her eye.

What makes her see these things
that I pass by?
Not serendipity,
but her keen eye.

11 comments:

Acornmoon said...

Beautiful images here, a keen eye and poetry combined. I really enjoyed it, well done.

Heather said...

Beautiful poem Pat and what treasures your friend's sharp eyes have brought her.

Canadian Chickadee said...

Nice. Wouldn't change a word. xoxo

Maggi said...

A beautiful poem Pat. It has inspired me to pay more attention to things.

Elizabeth said...

A poem to treasure...
about treasures.
Very apt!

Dave King said...

Keen eye and encyclopedic knowledge - as it is your keen ear that is responsible for this fine verse.

angryparsnip said...

Beautiful !
What an interesting friend you have to find such treasures and you have painted a picture of them for us with words.
The badger part makes me sad though.
cheers, parsnip

The Weaver of Grass said...

At this juncture I am about to make some alterations suggested by my son (I am not taking all his suggestions on board, but I agree with some.)

John Going Gently said...

i LIKED THIS
especially today!
x

Hildred said...

Lovely poem about awareness and appreciation, Pat. You can be proud to take this to your poetry afternoon.

Bovey Belle said...

Lovely. Beautifully written. Your friend obviously has a keen eye and notices things. Shades of poet Edward Thomas, who also noticed such things.