Springsong Emerging

Bees lapping croci nectar in the honey of the almost Spring sun, A pale orb hanging in the reflective faces of rocky pools. Bare trees twizzling their twisted branches towards heaven Whilst I squelch through winter's muddy residue on earth, Clambering hills to catch breath and gain perspective On this strange, ugly-beautiful urban landscape I inhabit. Here tenacious nature fills whatever pockets she can find With her wild, enchanting songs, humming with a symphony Skyscrapers can only point bluntly towards, puncturing skylines Where birds sail on wings garbed with the promise of Spring.

Katie Rose 20/2/21

Hope dawned today

Hope dawned today - Chinks of light breaking through Ravaged chambers of broken hearts. Hope carried on the flaming voices And soaring redemption songs Of stars and seers, young and old. Hope that the choking stranglehold Of brutal oppression will be met By the bending arc of justice. Hope that our fractured world, Frayed by disease, fear and greed, Might stitch together a new unity. Hope that we might, in treasuring Our breath and the breath of our beloveds, Learn to let our planet breathe.

@KatieRose Inauguration Day 20/1/21

And Still We Sing

 

Burnt leaves

Burnt leaves over water -

Cups of crinkled sunlight

Caught on toasted tree twigs,

Autumnal embers

Holding on by tiny tendrils,

Wrinkling in readiness

For the spiralling fall into

Waves of another life -

Banks of drifting leaf boats

Bound for watery winter voyages,

Floating in one final firey blaze,

Before sinking silty slippage into

A rich and restful soil bed

Of endings and becomings.

@Katie Rose Poetry Petals Nov 2020

Halloween Moon

Halloween Moon

Is the moon lonely hanging there,
Locked into endless orbit of an earth she will never meet,
As she daubs a creamy glow over tangled skylines?
Or is she, as the ancients said, in constant ecstatic
Symphony with the stars and heavenly bodies,
Eternally evolving through sympathetic movements
Of dark and light? And what would be the contribution
Of our dissonant lockdown emissions, the cacophony
Of human dissent and disarray which appears to make
Concord in any sphere an impossibility.
The unblinking orbit of the moon does not bat an eyelid
She has seen and heard it all before, centuries of civilisations
Rising and falling with the waves she magnetises -
So we are inextricably woven into rhythmic destiny -
The corona of tonight's Halloween Queen
Illuminates mysteries far beyond our viral confusion.

Outdoors is the New Indoors

Outdoors is the new indoors
According to the floral slogans
Of swish shopping mall doors.
Except that it always was,
Always will be,
More truthfully
Wordlessly beautiful,
More brilliantly branded,
Burnt by autumnal fire,
More full of surprise antlers
Suddenly appearing amidst
Bristling sun bronzed ferns,
More illuminated by skies
Caressed by the floating fingers
Of carefree clouds.
More embracing, encompassing
All in the coil and curl
Of endless extended tree arms.

Will I live to see the day
We discard the mangled
Manhandled monstrosities
Of barbed wire and concrete,
Abandon the deadly dance macabre
Of devastation and destruction
And join the massive banquet of life
Pulsing our feet, infusing our lungs,
Shining in the eyes of laughing children
Who rightly recognise it as home.


Yesterday's glorious walk from Wimbledon to Teddington

Walking Pauses

Walking Pauses

Poem from todays walk - 3 miles to and around South Norwood Lake and Grounds dedicated to Walk the Walk, raising awareness and funds for breast cancer.
https://walkthewalk.charitycheckout.co.uk/pf/katie-rose

Walking Pauses
Any walk is punctuated by significant pauses,
Places and spaces to breathe amidst pacing,
Rests within rhythm, silence within sound,
Where wonder entwines with wandering.
A stop to smell the roses by the church,
Scented with wistful longing for the singing
Of my choirs and the strains of orchestras
Humming in the mighty chambers of its heart.
The liberation when the clutter of streets
Opens out into an explosion of cloud across sky,
Captured in twilight's molten metallic mirror,
Captivating my meandering mind
In a moment of watery wonder.
An encounter with a feathery formation
Of snoozing ducks, whose camouflaged eyes
Glance at me with glassy suspicion,
Unconvinced by my friendly smiles.
A tug at the heartstrings, a pang of sadness
At the loneliness of a stunted, stooped man
Shuffling painfully along the water's edge,
His solitary circuits lapping the edges of mine.
Ripples of remembrance for the ones I loved
Who walked free of their dance with cancer,
The ones still held in its insistent grip
And the ones who slipped away in its arms.
- They walk on in my footsteps
And they linger in the pauses in between.