HOMES PASSING
This place
evokes cuckoos calling in June
In the copse by the stream and the oak stand on the hill
While the spring lambs scoot around the meadow
In gangs, leaping onto old tree stumps, rocky outcrops
Goat-like, king o’ the castle-ing
While I hang out on my doorstep with cuppa
as the swallows swirl under the eaves
And apple blossom unfurls.
How many years I sit in this little barn
It could just as well be a palace
Fitting like a skin with its log fire and views of the mountain slopes
While the Moon lopes out of the valley, clambering over the old trees
Bright in my window, traipsing its witchy aura so I need no lighting on.
Other abodes have their own fragrance too.
Summer twilights, scrabbling with brambles and rocks, broken nails, bonfire smoking
heart-full Garden-time, free-range, aberrant land-scaper,
digging ponds, making stone circles, rose arbours, wood shack, fire-pits, aviary,
a place for the hammock all squished in
And there too, the moon fell through my window glinting on the crystals
as I sat by my fire in the old arm-chair.
I walked in, its spaces welcoming
right down to the three-legged race on my doorstep on arrival
and fortuitous electricians, helpful neighbours
not to mention the roving hills all round embracing.
And when I went
I was not even sure why: why did you sell up? What was amiss in that house?
Nuffink. Not even the rowdy Saturday nights of the rugby club.
All I saw was a badger in his track. Me.
It was time to go. To where? For what? Who knows!
An other, facing west, setting sun over the jack-daw chimney tops
And moon-shining in ,
like a nest or coat it clothed me well
A higgledy little den, all bendy walls and stairs, fireplace and wobbly nooks
the cottage on the corner, mind your head you long ones!
My garden there was a hanky patch, but enough to prop the deck chair and put a few pots.
Also, my darling’s memory tree, brought in a sack from one house to the next.
For all its tiny size it was amazingly expandable when it came to welcome family hordes:
It smelt right, felt right, slept quiet in the middle of the old town.
It came easy, blessed and housed my safety, growing, being
and when it was time to go, clear closure; not a pang or string left attached.
I could walk passed its door like it was a previous life;
gone in a puff of smoke. Done! Deo Gratias! Amen!
Maybe I get good at this Moving Game;
Finding then, when the seven years lapse, a new skin/walkabout
Letting go and how to say goodbye, wind up gracefully.
Full-square, face on, the only hidden agenda
That ancient contract I do not see;
Just sense, it is time to go! Maybe a few signs
But no more the great whacks in the backside by Life! – to kick me out
To dislodge me from some safe and suffocating rut
Long passed dead.
Then, it took earthquakes and mayhem
My body to fall apart with everything else
to get the point.
Now I walk light – for all the clutter I amass
No more those weighty heirlooms to preserve and treasure
Just some Ikea or junk shop bits and bobs
To put books in, sleep on
A few walls and a roof.
What more is my dream home
Which I see, crystal clear in that nook in the hill;
It too has the big fireplace, old sofa
and I can hear the owls in the wood;
the snowdrops and daffs spring in the bank
Where the sound of water plays like frosted bells.
The old druid stone stands watch, moon-silvered
And the time will come when I am full-body there
Easy and right as the song in the throat of a thrush
As the seasons turn, and each new cycle burgeons.
Though I have no dread of autumn.
In fact, I love it the most, my birthing month
The rising mists and shortening days
That ripening and fullness, soft and mellow
Ready to release, let go
The dropping of fruit, so precise, irrevocable
each exact but easy moment
And each leaf, as the storms bluster
Baring to essentials for the welcome long sleep.
Mean-the-while, my gypsy self stirs!
Other vistas dawn
while my heart is brim with gratitude for all I have and had.
Knowing in truth, I own no thing, for I am naked as new-born
and in that same emptiness, unbelonging
I am always rich and blessed.