Cloth Wings

Another blue sky
shaking itself free
of swifts

     leaf shade
     on bamboo

a wind
from beyond
the moon

     secrets [pass]
     between the Yew trees

branches crack underfoot
a phone rings –
where are my shoes?

     if its a bear play dead
     for a lion fight back

she wakes
to tawny light
spilled on her pillow

     a blanket laid over
     the field of battle

V’s in the mud –
this walls not Roman
anymore

     at the  edge of the forest
     a vixen seeks a mate

the stirrup cup
the lathered flanks – saddle sore

     soap bubbles squeeze
     from the sponge in your hand

butterfly cakes
bowl licked clean –
happy kids

     cloth wings hang
     in the cupboard

scratching a spyhole
on the frozen pane –
I see a fire

     why do you keep on
     telling me fairy tales?

St Oswald's bones –
a candle burning
through the afternoon

     sunlight bends and flexes
     a hare’s hind legs

purple shadow –
yellow coltsfoot
could shift tarmac

     kestrel silhouette
     moves away.

a nijuuin renga in Summer
Heavenfield, September 9, 2003
from Sea to Sea: Renga Along Hadrian’s Wall

Participants
Linda France, Master poet
Alec Finlay, Host poet
Miles Thurlow
Steve Chettle
Morven Gregor
Anne Race
Lesley Mountain
Eileen Ridley
Linda France
Sadie Pape
Aileen McKay
Jadzia Race
Sylvia Lynch
Margaret Frayne
Irene Leake

Verse Attributions
1-LF; 2-IL; 3-AF; 4-MT
5-comp; 6-AF; 7-LF; 8-LM; 9-comp; 10-AMcK
11-LM; 12-LM; 13-ER; 14-comp; 15-AMcK; 16-MF
17-comp; 18-LF; 19-comp; 20-MG

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