stone – Foxglove Journal

A Stone – Oak Ayling

Do you think

A stone taken up from the ground

Forgets where it is from?

Erased of place, of memory?

Do you think it remembers

The rough kiss

The tender current

The air, the ocean

The chatter of falcons nesting?

Does it still think fondly

Of the year you were born?

Oak Ayling is a young woman quietly stitching poetry into the blurry windswept border between Cornwall and Devon, England. Highly commended by Indigo Press in the Geoff Stevens Memorial Prize 2018, her work can be found in Anti Heroin Chic Magazine, the fast growing lit mag From Whispers to Roars and forthcoming charitable anthology ‘Shorthand’ by author Helen Cox in support of UK homeless charity Streetlink.

Three Quatrains – Don Thompson

Frost Moon, November

Cold and desiccated, the full moon

Broods just above the hills,

Its light through autumn haze

Like dust rising from ice.

Bristlecone Pine

Rooted the hard way into stone

And exposed to inhuman weather,

Nothing ever disturbs it inside

Its exoskeleton of loneliness.

Drought

Doves on a stunned afternoon

Flutter from dust to branch and back again,

Gray and taupe, seeds of rain clouds

With nowhere to take root.

Don Thompson was born and raised in Bakersfield, California, and has lived in the southern San Joaquin Valley for most of his life. He has been publishing poetry since the early sixties, including a dozen books and chapbooks. For more information and links to his publications, visit his website San Joaquin Ink (don-e-thompson.com).

December 24, 2017 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: birds, clouds, colours, creative, creativity, Don Thompson, doves, dust, elements, hills, ice, light, loneliness, moon, nature, poems, Poetry, quatrains, rain, seasons, stone, weather, writing Leave a comment

fisherman – Ion Corcos

blue bay turns to white

scatters seagulls on the pier

splashes high on empty restaurants

onto rocks

a lone fisherman on an old cane chair

hot mountain tea on salted stone;

no man calls to long-haired goats

along the rugged path, no clinking bells

only a loose canvas flapping

a few dead fish in buckets

and a dying wind in the cove

Ion Corcos has been published in Grey Sparrow Journal, Clear Poetry, Communion, The High Window and other journals. He is a Pushcart Prize nominee. Ion is a nature lover and a supporter of animal rights. He is currently travelling indefinitely with his partner, Lisa. Ion’s website iswww.ioncorcos.wordpress.com.

December 9, 2017 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: animals, bells, call, colours, cove, creative, creativity, death, elements, fish, goats, humanity, Ion Corcos, mountain, nature, path, poem, Poetry, rocks, salt, stone, wind, writing 1 Comment

Days Lie In Wait – Paul Waring

I wander streets

as days lie in wait

on blind corners

and the future

hides behind clock faces.

Six magpies steal gold

from afternoon sun,

the seventh

knows secrets

like city stone.

In corners of a shadow

a black cat

sees me coming,

stretches, counts time,

disappears into days.

And waits

to deliver news

I’d least expect.

Paul Waring is a retired clinical psychologist who once designed menswear and was a singer/songwriter in several Liverpool bands. His poems have appeared in journals/sites including Reach Poetry, Eunoia Review, The Open Mouse and are forthcoming in Clear Poetry and Amaryllis. He recently returned from living in Spain and Portugal and continues to enjoy being re-acquainted with the wonderful variety of nature in Wirral and other parts of Britain. His blog is https://waringwords.wordpress.com.

August 20, 2017 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: animals, cat, city, clock, corners, creative, creativity, days, future, gold, magpies, Paul Waring, poem, Poetry, secrets, shadow, stone, streets, sun, time, UK, waiting, writing Leave a comment

Balinese pool – J V Birch

I find peace in a Balinese pool

swathes of water lilies

hide the flash of fish below.

A stone girl reclines in its centre

frangipani flowers scattered

like worn lovers around her.

A dragonfly zips through

trailblazing its colour

between a blur of crisp wings.

I crouch to look closer.

What I thought were brown spots

are fingernail-sized frogs

squatting on lily pads like tiny worries.

I watch a few flick into fathomless depths.

J V Birch lives in Adelaide. Her poems have appeared in anthologies, journals and magazines across Australia, the UK, Canada and the US. She has two collections – Smashed glass at midnight and What the water & moon gave me – published by Ginninderra Press, and is currently working on her third. She blogs at www.jvbirch.com.

August 16, 2017August 16, 2017 by foxglovejournal Categories: PoetryTags: Bali, colours, creative, creativity, elements, fauna, fish, flora, flowers, frogs, J V Birch, lilies, lovers, nature, peace, poem, Poetry, stone, water, wildlife, wings, world, writing 1 Comment

Another Thing – Danielle Dix

It is something to understand

you share the space between the sky

and the land

the time that falls from jumping

to standing

the beat of breathing

the peak and plunge of the sun

But as stone to grain,

from mist to rain,

It’s another thing to change

Danielle Dix is a poet with a tendency to focus on the challenges that people create within themselves. She is ruled by her impulsive nature, drools for travel, and is compiling a set of poems that she hopes will not fall prey to abandonment in a cardboard box. She tweets at @DanielleNoelDix.

April 13, 2017April 14, 2017 by foxglovejournal Categories: Poetry, UncategorizedTags: breath, change, creative, creativity, Danielle Dix, earth, elements, humanity, land, mist, nature, poem, poems, Poetry, rain, sky, stone, sun, time, understanding, US, world, writing Leave a comment