<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Quercus<\/strong><\/p>\n It had always been there, He shivers as the freshness of morning Circling to the north he faces the tree again, From the path, brown with dry grass and blown leaves, He finds it hard coping with the uneven ground, <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Phil Dunkerley<\/strong> is the Poetry Society representative for the Stamford Stanza, Lincolnshire, and is active in open-mic and other local poetry groups. His poems have appeared in magazines and anthologies, and he is a reviewer and translator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Quercus It had always been there, standing against the sky as he left the village, between the field edge and the ditch, a constant presence in every coming and going. Now, curiosity draws him towards it. He shivers as the freshness of morning chills his small body. The tree towers over him, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14425"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14427,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14425\/revisions\/14427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nstanding against the sky as he left the village,
\nbetween the field edge and the ditch,
\na constant presence in every coming and going.
\nNow, curiosity draws him towards it.<\/p>\n
\nchills his small body. The tree towers over him,
\nhuge, branching, buds caught in the act of opening.
\nThe horizon is bright with yellow, green and pale blue;
\nin wraiths of mist an old man passes along the road.<\/p>\n
\nunderstanding, for the first time, its maturity.
\nVivid lichen tinges the strong ridged bark,
\nthe green canopy spreads wide, and as he looks up
\nwood pigeons flap out, off to the ripening wheat.<\/p>\n
\nhe can see empty nests high in the branches.
\nThe wan disk of the sun in a layer of thin cloud
\nfades as it settles behind the woods. He hears
\na tractor working the stubble land; someone is busy.<\/p>\n
\nand sadly notes the last few lingering leaves.
\nHe watches as the approaching geese head south.
\nVapours cling to the frosty earth; he turns away
\nand, far off, sees a small boy leaving the village.<\/p>\n