I was commissioned by Shout Out for the Arts Warwickshire (https://shoutoutforthearts.co.uk/) to write a poem on the theme of pathways. I wrote about skylarks. I have performed this poem at the Shout Out for the Arts event i. February and also at the Festival of Education as part of the SEEd panel (Sustainability and Environmental Education) -
The Skylark's First Flight
What our hearts needed was this –
so we listened, we waited
for the first to rouse the landscape
with song, to become the sky
to rise on invisible columns
warbling, disappearing,
climbing, free-falling
even though it was winter
even though we were numb.
We shielded our eyes
searched for them
in the strengthening light
and the season turned – we saw seedlings rise
charmed like snakes by flute and whistle
fields turn from barren to green
shoots push through the expectant earth
and the crop grew dense around their nests
covered them, swaddled them
this year’s young woven into sculpted cups
but we knew as we walked among
the static blades that one would
give itself away – rustle its way
out and up, elevate us with its serenade
and summer days brought
cracking clay and gorse pods
splitting on the hill, as jackdaws
tumbled into sunsets
and we hoped they had fledged
when harvest came, the ground quaked
and dust rose thick as mist.
Such potential at our mercy
promise shattered by machinery –
but we waited, and walked
through all those songless months
hoping the next generation would rise,
carry us in its flight