Soft-brown calligraphy of leafless branches

        Soft-brown calligraphy of leafless branches*

        a brood of hens scratch in a careless line

        out from their swung-open

        slight fenced enclosure

        range across the sodden lean of green pasture

        appear to peck drenched sunlight up.

        A still frame from what it cost

        once to be ordinary.

        His muted knife

insists on the impression of soft innocence-

        the way things were.

        A landscape not marred by ideals or heroism

        an invitation to allow Earth the scope

        to speak for itself.

        A casual prism

        of everyday ritual and grind

        refracting how things are

                                                and made divine.

            * after the painting Winter Sunlight by Frederick McCubbin (1908)

These poems are from my new collection IN THE APRICOT DARKNESS (view the cover and contents below in my recent posts). They are now being published individually, daily under 'recent posts' on my blog and will be available shortly as an eBook that can be read online or downloaded for free.