A poem for today.

[Candy]

I looked at the view over the hills today and this poem sprang to mind.
Thaw.
Over the land freckled with snow half thawed
The speculating rooks at their nests cawed
And saw from Elm tree, delicate as flower of grass
What we below could not see; Winter pass.
(Edward Thomas)
I seem to remember from my school days that Winter was thought to be an analogy for the first World War. It seems apt for the situation that the world is in now, too.
Pee Ess, does anyone else miss Elm trees?

 

[Charlie]

Lovely Candy xx

 

[Stacia]

@Candy, yes I do miss Elm trees, so sad to see young ones which are now dead.

 

[HAH]

I love Edward Thomas but don’t know much of his work; thank you @Candy , that was new to me and it’s beautiful.
We’ve got young elms round here, but we’ve seen some lovely big’uns on the Isles of Scilly, because they avoided the beetle that carries Dutch Elm Disease. Yet another reason to visit the Scillies!

 

[Candy]

I love Edward Thomas but don’t know much of his work; thank you @Candy , that was new to me and it’s beautiful.
We’ve got young elms round here, but we’ve seen some lovely big’uns on the Isles of Scilly, because they avoided the beetle that carries Dutch Elm Disease. Yet another reason to visit the Scillies!

I didn't know that the Scillies still had elms! I've been meaning to go for years! Now there's a plan for when 'Winter ' has passed!

 

[HAH]

I didn't know that the Scillies still had elms! I've been meaning to go for years! Now there's a plan for when 'Winter ' has passed!

Ooh yes, two varieties apparently: Elm
We want to take Kipper to the Scillies as soon as we can, it’s very dog friendly and just beautiful.

 

[Candy]

Ooh yes, two varieties apparently: Elm
We want to take Kipper to the Scillies as soon as we can, it’s very dog friendly and just beautiful.

I have also been told that it's all very dog friendly. One on the list for my GoodGirl and me!

 

[Candy]

We saw several large fungi on our morning walk today and there was a vague scent of wood smoke in the air. I was reminded of this poem by Elizabeth Jennings, Song at the beginning of Autumn.
Now watch this autumn that arrives
In smells. All looks like summer still;
Colours are quite unchanged, the air
On green and white serenely thrives.
Heavy the trees with growth and full
The fields. Flowers flourish everywhere.

Proust who collected time within
A child's cake would understand
The ambiguity of this -
Summer still raging while a thin
Column of smoke stirs from the land
Proving that autumn gropes for us.

But every season is a kind
Of rich nostalgia. We give names-
Autumn and summer, winter, spring-
As though to unfasten from the mind
Our moods and give them outward forms.
We want the certain, solid thing.

But I am carried back against
My will into a childhood where
Autumn is bonfires, marbles, smoke;
I lean against my window fenced
From evocations in the air.
When I said autumn, autumn broke.