The ash tree
A superb winter sunrise
backlights edges of cloud
tinting sky above and bay below
the palest blue, hints of gold
glistening on the water.
Beneath a faint sliver of rainbow
a young ash, bold denier of dieback
pushing through a broken wall
wears a light sheen of frost
on its hard black buds.
Aidan Semmens’s first full-length book of poems arrived in 2011, thirty-five years after his first pamphlet; his sixth, The Jazz Age, was published by Salt in 2022. He lives in Orkney.