A Season in Quarantine - Day Sixty

A beautifully sunny afternoon for my sixtieth walk under (an ever so slightly relaxing) lockdown. The wind still carried a chill within it, though. Too early to celebrate the arrival of summer.

I walked up the old bridleway in the hope that the dog roses were blossoming. In full spate they are like bridal archways.

"and when three months later wild dog roses

nose the track with wedding arches, petalled pink,"

from Harcamlow Way – a partial etching by J.S.Watts

Whilst some individual flowers had started to open, though, the full floral display is still a week or so off.

Harcamlow Way - a Partial Etching

Harcamlow Way – a partial etching

Time has etched out a much loved route, my feet

echoing themselves on old roads,

across the farm, beside the stream,

shaping the carved field lines,

curves and contours of the land

and then a sharp and sudden

angle onto the rising track

sloping slowly upwards into a wide

open Cambridge sky.

I walk down evolving seasons,

when the east harried winds shriek

their abrasive chill along the path,

when yellow beds of daffodils spread

in sudden preparation for the flush and roll of spring

and when three months later wild dog roses

nose the track with wedding arches, petalled pink,

nature sensing better the order of life

than recent man shaped gods.

                             J.S.Watts

"Harcamlow Way - A Partial Etching" is published in the poetry Collection "Years Ago You Coloured Me"

by J.S.Watts

Lapwing Publications (2016) ISBN 9781910855157

©J.S.Watts