Calendar Renga
A Calendar Renga poem created at our January meeting using all the captions submitted to accompany the selected images for the 2024 calendar by members of the Wordsworth Writing Group at The Old Courthouse.
Pale sky full of cold
red & black blazing a trail
old snow lines the tracks
Feel the packman’s ponies tread
from parish to parish.
Clear cold blue day
frosted branches
decorate the lane
Another winter over,
with spring comes
hope for the next generation
Look on these hills, these skies
my ancestors, like yours,
steeped in spring’s coming.
Feel the packman’s ponies tread
from parish to parish.
A hand of white cloud
rests over sheep land, palm down,
quieting, calming
Spring sings with her
Bonny
Paper white petals
small way markers edge the path
all through the green wood
Clouds feather the sky
ghosts appear on the water
bloom in broad daylight
Shout, you can shout at the wind
and tiny flowers a thumbnail high will quiver,
tiny flowers will quiver.
Sheep do safely graze at Keld
below the distant hills
Over, under or through, leap
the water, stone and moss
river and bridge, flow and lode
Feel the packman’s ponies tread
from parish to parish.
Life-giving water in tranquil shade
gushing forth from its mossy glade.
Remnants of rainforest
ferns
water falling
‘Epiphytes and bryophytes enjoy the moisture of the woods.
Living layers drip with green.’
Curiosity killed the cat
but fortunately
not the cows!
Curious bovine gazes at human.
Are my earrings nicer than yours?
Sheep gently graze by a rippling beck
beneath a blue, cloud ridden sky
Steep-angled bedrock,
furred in green sedge, holds a stag
antlered in velvet
Mine! Mine! Mine!
Monarch of all I survey!
Now the winter bushes bloom again,
with branches decked in finest lace.
Shout, you can shout at the wind
Snow of last night’s storm
waits hushed, bids you step
across the river, flowing still
Limekilns ride winter
like old ocean liners, streaming
steam through the sunset
Stepp this way to a
winter wonderland
White of snow, grey of steam
nature versus man in harmony
Feel the packman’s ponies tread
from parish to parish.
Passing Shap station –
years ago children returned here,
school day over.
A Calendar Renga poem created at our January meeting using all the captions submitted to accompany the selected images for the 2024 calendar by members of the Wordsworth Writing Group at The Old Courthouse.
Alex, Henry, Jane, Janet, Jean, Juliet, Lania, Peter, Phyllis, Sue, Susan, Victoria
Thank you to everyone who supplied photos and writing for the calendar and to Wordsworth Grasmere for their sponsorship.