Vin de Noir

As darkness fell

two daffodils gleamed

in January just gone

near the path just dug

weeded of hyacinths

last year

As darkness falls

talk of two raised beds

down near the fruit tree

where parsnips failed

 in rich loam

infested with roots

from the apple tree

Vin de noir

served at sunset

long before dinner

walnut wine mixed

with cabernet

Dick Russell

copyright © 2019

For Tom Pickard

Did he ever tell you that same story

he told me?

when in want of  a grant

Yeats, Pound and Eliot: all three

supported Bunting and no grant was given

he’d keep whatever clout he had

to better support you

you had a good friend in BB

did you ever wander Wark Forest way?

those new plantations round Roughside

full grown now

hard hill country farms

better as forest

lonely cottages just like yours

only surrounded by trees

where short-eared owls patrolled rows of conifers

adders basked in the sun

some poetry was getting done.

Dick Russell

copyright © 2019

                            Local Knowledge

there’s a spirit in Britain now

stoic

about having to go it alone again

blitzed by Brexit

talking to a London taxi driver

who took the shortest route

while talking about his travels

boasting he could name all 50 states in order only getting five names wrong

probably given time could drive you to every Massachusetts Road and Avenue

or Gloucester Square

roads with names far enough by cab

to be hailed from outside Victoria Station

where when I returned found no waiting cabs

for the Gatwick train, not as they used to wait

three-deep for ferry trains from Calais

found instead a cabbie traveling soon to Thailand, with fares so cheap

who wants Calais now?

a chirpy London cabbie

worth every shilling of his fee

Dick Russell

Copyright © 2019