A Change in the Air

I have been out most days during lockdown on short socially distanced walks around my local area. When the restrictions began, we were approaching the Spring Equinox. The flowers came in a blaze of colour and beauty, before we moved into a summer of both heat wave and storm. Images of life and death have certainly seemed close together in 2020 as we have been forced to live more in the present, to come to terms with our human vulnerability and to consider what is really important to us and what is not. Now the harvest has been gathered in, I sense a change in the air and in the earth beneath my feet. I am on my way towards completing a book though it is taking longer than I first envisaged. I have also written poems and taken photos, as well as collecting haw berries from an abundant local tree to make hawthorn brandy (recipes on the internet). A submission I made in June, has seen two of my poems - Wings of Light and Summer Trilogy published in the September issue of a monthly Druid journal called TOUCHSTONE. ​

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Wings of Light

The blue grey lull of twilight sea
The shore lamps twinkle into night
Behind a thin mist curtain like a veil
I breathe in stars and fly on wings of light.

Iona Jenkins, 2020
Also published in Touchstone 2020

Summer Trilogy

The white flower trumpets
Are green leaf creeping
Over the old churchyard
Grave stones, silent bones
Life and death close mingle
In sunlight bright gilding
The sky is blue above the bay
 
Nectar collecting the bees buzzing
In lush lavender purple tumbling
Summer scented on grey stone walls
The earth is alive and honey making
 
Summer leaves in dusty green
And fruit trees heavy laden
The cornfields ripened gold
All ready for the harvesting
The earth is a generous mother.

Iona Jenkins, 2020
Also published in Touchstone 2020