Gathering
We always knew the months Orion would be clear above our roofs,
the years the damson trees would yield a heavy crop.
We knew when geese would split the skies and flocks
of field-fares arrive to strip the berries from our trees,
the time for harvesting, the holly’s ripening,
the time of wood-smoke and the sawing of logs.
We never thought that we’d no longer read
the seasons as we used to do –
not know when to plant and when to sow,
nor what would prosper in the endless days of rain,
nor when the date of gathering might be
(one meagre week of sun, and so much to be done).
We look up at uncertain skies, wring our hands,
and ask each other ‘What’s to come?’
Gill McEvoy is a Hawthornden Fellow. Full collection The Plucking Shed (Cinnamon Press 2010). 2nd collection Rise due from Cinnamon, May 2013. Gill runs many poetry events in Chester where she lives.
Very nice, Gill. Sharp, delicate, pinpoint accuracy about the tremulousness of natural cycles and ourselves, for are we not temporary guests of nature? Nearing 70, I feel very much so. Thanks for this poem!
Thank you so much, James. I feel precisely as you do, that we are but temporary guests of nature -and may you be such for a long while yet!
Gill
Gill, If you csn send me your two books including all previous reviews thus far, interviews, etc., I can work up a review of both. Send to: James Naiden, Box 14098, Minneapolis, MN 55414 USA. Glad to know you’re living and writing!
James, thank you. Very generous.
Gill
Hi Gill,
Received your handwritten letter. Do u have email? // Yes, happy to do it. Helen said she would be happy to post my review of your two books. If the first one is rare, perhaps u can xerox it off, including cover and legsl page, & then mail it with the new book, when it’s ready, to me here in Minneapolis. // I’ll type a snailmail letter to you imminently. I’m very sorry about your bout with cancer & that u lost your mother because of it. Tell me whatever u think I should know as I prepare to read & analyze your two books. // Helen said she’s met u & found u impressive. At any rate, good poets ought to be read.
— James 4/15/13 JamesNaiden30@gmail.com 612-749-1512 (cell)