Before I Get There & Mist

Just two short poems this time, they are thematically linked and were written on consecutive days but refer to the same journey from London to my beloved Cornwall. The first is a set of three Senryū, you may have noticed - it is one of my favourite verse forms.



Before I Get There 05 Sep 85

From London, a road
Serpentine, westward leading
Taking me homeward

City walls fading
In the east. Granite hedges
Are beckoning me

Sunrise behind me.
I watch the shadows shorten
And leave the ocean



Mist 06 Sep 85

Gradually
Time sliding into an afternoon
Of peace
The haze of autumn
Stretched and torn
By hills and trees
Left, lying abandoned
In the hollows



Back again before too long