Poems © LesleyMay Miller
If the Shore
If the shore came nearer
how would life be then?
Waves lap on my doorstep
sea-song in my head.
Anemones in my garden
crabs climb up the wall.
Hawthorn waves goodbye
the rowan moves uphill.
Ocean draws me under
on an inward breath.
Recent award winning poems:
Earth to Light
Kaolin, feldspar and flint
thrown, coiled or pinched
in the master hands of a potter.
White body, speckled with light
cobalt brushed around the rim
set aside to dry for many days.
The fire roars for long hours
slowly from cherry-red to orange
a yellow glare fills the kiln.
White heat of expectation. Wait.
Will there be joy or pain?
Cupped hands hold a fragile bowl
cared for in obscurity
until a chance spin of life’s wheel
repeats the process of transformation.
Filled with a flourish of cream
a perfect porcelain blue-edged bowl
out in the world.
Touch Stone
He walks slowly
on a well-worn path
listening for the blackbird
and brushing past bracken
feels the warmth
of familiar stone
finds the sweet heat
of brambles hiding by the wall.
He picks clover and chews on summer,
kneels to search for sorrel
explodes its sweet acid
in his mouth.
Hears the music of
honey collectors,
gathers a bitter taste of mint.
Written in 2013 for the anniversary of the battle of Flodden
published in 'A Set of Ribbons' an anthology
for the Yarrow, Ettrick and Selkirk Festival:
Lament
she sang for our loss
she sang for the missing trees
for all the men in the trenches
for all the men in an ancient marsh
we walked in the forest
my mother’s warm hand holding mine
we sense her touch
see the bluebells yet
she gathered flowers
in spring, before the summer
absence,
wild anemones
celandines
bitter wood-sorrel
found creeping-lady’s-tresses
under the pine
she sang for the lone one
who returned
she sang of a king who
dreamed of peace
