The Skylark's First Flight - Commission

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 in February and also at the Festival of Education as part of the SEEd panel (Sustainability and Environmental Education) -

https://se-ed.org.uk/seed-at-the-13th-festival-of-education-2023-at-wellington-college/

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