The habit of hanging artworks on my garden fence
The giant Buddha sits crossed legged meditating on Time
with his back to me. He’s taller than the black maple tree
and the pagoda on the horizon. The image is reflected
in the waters of Lake Mahor and todays bright sunshine
creates a Northern Lights effect on its foil surface.
And it’s feeding time again for the goldfinches
as they sing joy into this day and wait patiently
in skeletal branches of the copper beech, not thinking
about Time at all; but I know they won’t come down
to the feeder while we are here in the garden.
My skin burns as this strange April sun thinks of summer.
Birds live in moments of nest and weather, abundance
in hedgerows and the knowledge of cats. They know
about love, about the feed and fledge of days.
I’ve been mindful of spiders in the garden, how on edge
they must be—how they jump so fast when my feet
hit the pebbles. Spiders live in the moment, where Time
is an illusion—a clock winder in a human mind.
Time is a currency, vast and small, a wheel turner
of clouds, suns and moons. Love has no notion of Time,
she walks in one door and out of another. Today I see
the brightest of yellow—the celandine’s liquid petals,
and when I turn my head sideways I see you, my dearest
lover, a friend that holds on tight as we wonder about
the fairground wall of death. We think that Time will know,
will know when to let us go.
Penny Sharman is a published poet, photographer, artist and therapist. She is inspired by wild natural landscapes and the relationships between the seen and the unseen. Penny has an MA in Creative Writing from Edge Hill University. Penny has three grown up sons and three grown up grandchildren. She loves walking in wild places and wonders at the cosmos. She is inspired by music and dance which quite often appears in her art and poetry. In the 80’s she opened a vegetarian café called Pie in The Sky which was ground breaking at the time.
She has had many poems published in magazines such as The Interpreter’s House, Strix, The North, Obsessed with Pipework, Finished Creatures, Orbis and Ink Sweat &Tears. Mslexia. Marble. Beautiful Dragons. Penny’s pamphlet Fair Ground (Yaffle Press: 2019), her 1st collection Swim With Me In Deep Water (Cerasus Poetry: 2019) and her 2nd collection The Day before Joy (2020) from knivesforksandspoonspress.co.uk. Catching the Heather (Cerasus Poetry:2022) The Ash of Time (Hedgehog Press: 2022) are available to buy from her website: pennysharman.co.uk
Penny is Co Editor of Obsessed with Pipework Poetry Magazine. Penny is active on Social Media sites: FB, Instagram and Twitter. She regularly performs her work at open mics and is a member of a Stanza group and of the Poem Shed.