Bordeaux Bay

Bordeaux Bay
Bordeaux Bay by Guernsey-based artist Tony Taylor

Saturday 5 November 2022

WHAT LIES BEYOND?

A recent visit to southern England reminded me of how much I enjoy woodland, something that's in short supply on the little island of Guernsey. I grew up on the edge of wooded countryside in Northern Ireland, back in the days when children played outdoors from dawn to dusk during school holidays, so I have a deep-seated fondness for that type of environment. 

The woods in this poem are of a less welcoming kind: a metaphor, perhaps, for that vast and unnerving unknown that exists just beyond our everyday consciousness.
















THE WOODS


The woods are dark and deep, it’s true,

but are not lovely. I peer in

to watch light die out tree by tree

and, branch by branch, darkness accrue:

a furry dark, black as moleskin,

that seems to watch me balefully

as though I were some pausing prey

that dare not either fight or flee,

but, mesmerised, stands statue-still.

I shout and hear the ricochet

of my voice fly from tree to tree.

Nothing answers, nor ever will.



For a very different kind of verse visit my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/richard.fleming.92102564/



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