1408

Autumn leaves still linger 

             But winter's on the hoof

Galloping towards us

             With winds and lashing rain.

Ice upon the windscreen;

              Frost up on the roof.

A dove lights in the garden

             Searching for the grain;

Then sunlight rolls away the chilling mist

Raising into life what love has kissed.

Brain Hick November 2014

©copyright Sally Hick 8.11.25

 1407

I've glimpsed on starlit nights a flash of light

Which seemed to coalesce into a band

Of opalescent glory, pierced through

With the moon's cool purity and grace;

A presence felt far more than seen

As the light were iron and could cut

Deeper than these ineffective words

Deeper than the praises it inspired

Deeper than the stars themselves are high

Shaming my mere thoughts into a mire

Of ineffective gropings for a truth

So well concealed it smiles at me attempts

            Until I leap up and grasp the light

            Which made me stand and wonder in the night.

Brian Hick October 2014

©copyright Sally Hick 5.11.25

 Returning late from Tonbridge on the train

The taxi dropped me, sped off, and I stood

Alone beneath the silent autumn sky's

Pinpoint brightness stretched out beyond the woods.

Orion smiled, Auriga curved in joy,

Taurus galloped on towards his foe,

Castor, Pollux, the clustered Pleiades,

Sang and circled, while transfixed below

I wondered why this glory of the night

Seemed just for me, as if the universe

At this brief point in time, was mine alone

And nothing could destroy nor doubt reverse

            The truth I felt so deep within my heart

            That I was loved and love will ne'er depart.

Brian Hick October 2014

©copyright Sally Hick 3.11.25

 1405

Dried blood on the fields glimpsed from the train

As clouds in turmoil martial overhead;

Dusty embers drift down from the trees,

Last gasp before the winter's bitter rage

Reduces all to flotsam in the rain.

Brian Hick September 2014

©copyright Sally Hick 31.10.25

 1404

The best thing about

Today was the brief moment

With you on the phone.

Brian Hick October 2014

©copyright Sally Hick 29.10.25

 1403

A week away and nothing on the page.

Walking in the Cotswolds has been full

Of images and moments which could be

So easily transformed to simple verse

Yet singularly failed to turn themselves

Into a single idea worth its while

To try to set it down for you to read.

The days were full, the walks not over-long

But even harvest home at the Woolpack

Did not illicit a single brief haiku

Let alone a sonnet or roundel

And, somehow, I am not inclined to try.

            No poem could be so beautiful and true;

            It was enough I spent the time with you.

Brian Hick  autumn 2014

©copyright Sally Hick 27.10.25

 1402

Maybe I'll have time and space

To write a poem which

For once is anything but me;

Not fictional but one

Which challenges the moribund,

The dull, the everyday,

Yet still aims to be succinct,

Profound, adroit and true.

As if!

Brian Hick September 2014

©copyright Sally Hick 34.20.25