Out
nights were forest with foliage too dense
to let in the light of moon and stars –
and days were savannah prairie steppe –
glory and danger in strangeness of mountain
and sea and river – survival was tracking
the flock to the watering hole –
herd upwind and sun in their eyes –
fruit and grain foraged when chance allowed –
and there was no time but hunger’s clock –
no inheritance but instinct experience and blood –
and the tasks that there were were tasks for all
and rewards that there were were rewards for all
and life was vivid sacred and short
and we did not know to call it outdoors
when there were no doors no in no out
Mike Farren’s pamphlets are: Pierrot and his Mother (Templar), All of the Moons (Yaffle) and Smithereens (4Word). He won the Saltaire Festival and Ilkley Literature Festival poetry prizes in 2020 and was ‘canto’ winner for Poem of the North (2018).