from BARDO

The stars are in our belly; the Milky Way our umbilicus.

Is it a consolation that the stuff of which we’re made

is star-stuff too?


– That wherever you go you can never fully disappear –

dispersal only: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen.


Tree, rain, coal, glow-worm, horse, gnat, rock.


Roselle Angwin

Wednesday 14 May 2014

more for may




Just back from 2 days in a wonderful shepherd's hut by a lake on the Dorset/Somerset border, of which more anon.

Delighted that several people have sent in pieces of writing on 'May', so here they are, below. Thank you all – what a treat. (I've copied and pasted from several different types of documents, so if there are font discrepancies, that's why.)

~~~

May

Driving across the Levels to Godney in May is like being at nature’s wedding day. Narrow lanes, a froth of white and yellow, cow parsley and charlock that hem the rhynes. Pollard willows sprout new withies and stretching away, a green sea of rippling grass spattered with buttercup gold. Overarching hawthorn scatters confetti as you pass under branch after branch. After endless winter floods that turned Somerset into a vast lake, the joy is magnified. Life and the swallows have indeed returned. Only three miles away, but by the time I got there I felt positively bridal. 

Rachael Clyne

Rachael's Mayday view of Glastonbury Tor


~~~


May day

May I? Pretty please? – Oh yes I may!
Sweet May lays at my feet another day.
My days are done and cannot be undone,
but now another May day has begun!
May first is past:
Though filled with flowers and sealed with sun
It could not last.
May two - gone too,
Though every hour to its full length was spun.
And now May three
Is courteously bending at her knee,
Is greeting me
With yet another wealth of simple treasure;
Oh may I, may I, may I
Have the pleasure?


Sally Birch

~~~

100 words for May in the South West

Dancing at dawn, in the mist on Haytor, the magic of May begins. In its wake the bursting of the buds, the leaf sheaths blown and playing with blossom in a storm. Cloud bursts alternate with billowing clouds and warm sunshine confusion – coat on, gloves off, scarf on, umbrella up, down! The ever-changing skies galloping across the sea, or Dartmoor, move me. I am elated, inspired and pulled out of my winter lethargy, full of optimism for the season. Swept along through Devon lanes and beaches, I fall in love with another blessed Spring.

Dilys Morgan Scott


~~~

May


I walk the headland as far from sea as you can be. Horizontals broaden the land: a daub of rape stippled by bristling wind, a froth of chervil and now the scent of May. Bury your nose in blossom and scent is elusive; step back and the air is richly mellow, not sweet or fragrant but so beguiling it dumbs the road beyond. And all around the blue vastness above reaching full stretch, lifting the larks. Now they’re buried up high, in sky overgrown, dabbling clouds; and one unwinds, plummets, then skims the earth to land with upturned flourish.

Miriam Hancock


~~~


May, Hyde Park

The patient grass begins to grow, the feet to crush, machinery to shave and scalp. Birds sing, bursting tiny throats to overcome the traffic noise. Brave leaves break out on plane trees, ready for the rain of particulates. Dogs strain and bark, wishing again for freedom from lead and collar. And then their owners, discussing where to go for lunch.

Jeff Hancock

~~~
 
may


I missed you

on the island

you chose for your healing



walked alone

on its rocky land

and heathery soil



drunk with the playful wash

of blue,

turquoise and emerald seas



mirror of fleeting

quick-flowing clouds



lapping on banana sand –



I drove through

yet barren black glens



the one day blossoming

heath in mind



looked deep into dark lochs



panting for breath

at the stories

of the howling winds



                  ~~~~~



and when I saw you last night



in your deep-blue dress

the golden jacket slung

over your shoulders



your island

shimmered through –

healing may

have happened


Beatrice Grundbacher 


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