‘All has become quiet in Moscow.’– Count L N Tolstoy, The Cossacks,
She stands in silence
holding an empty sign
because words have lost
all meaning now
words have become sounds,
the way a gull cries,
the way a fox barks in the night –
the way a bullet flies
the way a bomb falls
the way a boy cries
mother
mother
mother
A poem for Linda at dVerse, who gives us a selection of famous first lines.
Things happen. Yellow flowers
find their way into the sun.
Bees hum. Bees hover,
catching the light.
Jungles form – tanglings
of green and brown –
things creep and glitter –
life is messier than we imagine.
For Brendan at earthweal.
While everything else is wondering whether spring is on its way or not, the wild cherry in the top corner makes a leap of faith. White blossoms, splashed with palest pink at their heart, they cluster together, dancing in the wind.
first step
into sunlight
blinking
A haibun for Frank at dVerse. Is there anything more appropriate to haibuns than cherry blossoms?
and now, everything is confetti –
the flowers are confetti,
the birds are confetti,
and they throw their songs in the air
to float down round us, like confetti
come June, we’ll be plumper
and drowsier, we’ll be soft,
but right now, we’re urgent –
we’re rushing to leaf and to bloom and to shoot,
to confetti.
A poem for my prompt – colour me poetry – at dVerse.
The white narcissi
are cut from white paper,
and the buds on the cherry
are tight knots of tissue,
and the daffodils, the celandines,
the pink magnolia
are paint splattered across
the page
and the sky is as blue
as a bowl, smudged
with thumbprint clouds
just the glorious
messiness
of spring
A quadrille for De at dVerse. Our word tonight is “paper”.
After it ended, I burned the hat –
or no – I shoved it deep
into the bottom
of a black plastic bin-bag –
or no – I left it on a bench
in a park
under a tree with scarlet leaves
and I walked away
feeling the sunlight
on my head.
My god, I hated that hat by the end. This is for Mish at dVerse.
“Mama, what did you do in the Kingdom of the Sky?”
“I wandered”
“Lonely?”
“As a cloud, I was never lonely. Clouds are always clustering together, sharing gossip. The moon is lonely, sometimes. I would visit her and drink pale tea and tell her stories. When I was a star, I spent hours on the phone to my sisters. We would wave to each other across those vast distances.”
“What did you like best?”
“Being a cloud. I was close enough to see what was happening down on the earth. People would look up at me, children would give me shapes and stories. But I liked visiting the moon, too. I liked her sad music and her translucent biscuits. I liked to see her smile”
“Would you go again?”
“No. I’m your mama, my feet are firmly on the ground. Go to sleep now.”
A prosery piece for Lillian at dVerse. 144 words, including the quotation. This one is so famous I’m not going to insult you by picking it out!
The wonderful Annick Yerem has edited this anthology of verse and images in support of Ukrainian refugees. I’m very proud to be in there, alongside some poets I really respect and admire.
You can get hold of a copy by making a donation directly to https://ukraine-hilfe-berlin.de/spende/, send a screenshot of your donation to annickyerem@gmail.com and you will receive this beautiful anthology of poems & artwork.
If you’re on Twitter, you can find Anja at @missyerem, and there’s more about Hilfe Berlin here: https://www.ukraine-hilfe-berlin.de/
Sarah writes poems 