beech

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beneath the Beech wood canopy… a languid Symphony of leaf filtered, modulated light
the leaves a vibrant hue of lime green, yet the quality of this submerged light, cusp, of absinthe, of verdigris…
a gentle patina of bird song… else the susurration of wind caressing leaves, balm and hush… here, friston forest, people are few
this myriad columned hall
the trees are tall, smooth grey trunks… elegant, somehow high elven, cheerful, yet self contained, stopping short of aloof, beyond… fey
soft leaves, gentle to the touch, still holding the brown husk of their nascent sheath sleeves
leaf edges are can opener jagged, crinkle cut
the trunks are shaggy, moss footed, talons almost gryphon or basilisk? something from a bestiary… rising to a lightly speckled elephant grey
have you ever tried to push a tree over? I have. Obdurate

Rafferty gallumphs along the path, a happy, black, curly haired dog, so dry the ground, giving him the repetitive hollow thud rhythm of horses hooves
past nettles, ragged robin, purple campion

out on the fringes of the wood, a view across open farmland, field maple, elder, the white froth confetti of hawthorn in bloom
a hawk rises up, not a kite, not a kestrel, but buzzard
tatty, out stretched be-feathered fingers
she is framed in the foreground… paragliders, neon orange, away by the white chalk horse, on the hill beyond
stasis, painterly, stasis

[from a letter to T]

choix opinel

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can smell the woodsmoke lingering in your hair
(excerpt from a letter to T)
blessed with a fairly outdoorsy childhood… well, mostly all the nature that suburban surrey can provide… beautiful woods, trees galore and a friends father’s farm to roam across
(where does the apostrophe belong in that phrase?! plonked like a wind blown speck of confetti)
one summer we tried to be bare foot every single day, just so our toes could grow far apart, we would become cavemen… reading ‘Stig of the Dump’ that year

I remember being age 11 or so, in Mosset, a small idyllic stone village, tucked away in a valley, high in the French Pyrenees
a long straight stick, size of a boy, it’s bark is a bright russet, lets call the wood cherry
a classic French Knife, Choix Opinel, wooden handle, a blade that arches back then open, silver grey, stern of stainless steel
whittle the end of my stick to a sharp precise point… pensively testing against fingertip
my younger brother and I set off on a hunting trip up the river
a fast flowing mountain stream, it’s bed rubble-d with boulders, festooned by smaller stones
water babbles, weave and turbulence, here bouncing, splashing high over a rock
then serpentine sucking back downwards, a ribboned plume of rainbows
alder and goat willow jostle on the banks
light is dappled, brown, speckled… with here… then there… the patter smattering of sparkles upon water

clear, euphoric

slicked back brown hair, I am changeling, otter sleek… creature of water, of land… flow state, merged within the stream
we wade upstream, else hop from rock to rock
amidst the bright chaos, there, backside, around the eddy of a large rock, lies a small still pool
eyes searching the depths for the stillness, the lolling calm of a fish
I stand there, spear in arm drawn back over my head
poise, stasis
slither of a flint flake of memory, to be held, here, forever