As part of Bywell Arts Festival, a group of us gathered in St Andrew’s Churchyard on Saturday evening (22nd June) to make a Midsummer Renga. A Churches Conservation Trust Church, it was the perfect setting for some quiet contemplation and gentle celebration of the solstice’s turning. Bywell is named from the Old English meaning ‘a spring at the bend’ and that gave us our opening verse, the hokku. Small fairy midges were dancing but our citronella spells seemed to keep them at bay.
Strawberry Moon
At a turn in the river
a well to drink from –
midsummer
bruised clouds
heavy air, citronella
within the curved wall
trace of old field boundary
hawthorn succeeded by fern
birds speakwu-weet wu-weet
a blackbird watches
women buried here
share names with the living –
Isabella, Julia, Eleanor
burning candle
and grass-tinted air
first one then another
a brief silence
then from all sides a chorus
flares of red on the honey stones
tell of raiders, fire and rust
hands drift across
the tickle and prick of grass
earth-warm, soil-soft
late, bee foraging
in almost nectarless rose
she’ll be along in a while
if the rumours are true –
strawberry moon
waiting for poetry
surprising, slow.
A Midsummer Renga
in St Andrew’s Churchyard, Bywell,
Northumberland,
22ndJune, 2019.
Participants:
Birtley Aris
Jo Aris
Keren Banning
Holly Clay
Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana
Linda France
Lilly Fylypczuk
Liz Kirsopp
Martin Kirsopp
Alex Reed
Eileen Ridley
Christine Taylor
Clara May Warden
Lovely! I was just there on Saturday afternoon…..