Turning the Landscape
Roads that brought us here –
blink them away
three hundred years
rain crackles the safe tent
inside, gentleness
layers of water, earth, white rock
nothing straight
all balancing
Brown charted the sweep of these contours
shifted nature
songs of dragonfly and jackdaw
spread over the lake
a rippled roof for fishes
plodging, rafting
petting, gutting
ornamental maple
next to copper beech
salt next to caramel
feet circled
satellites flung from a planet
tumbled scraps of moon
sheep graze
this divided land
the other side of the day
slowing down again
in the pink
foxgloves
shimmering question marks
a hand’s brush
two droplets fall
waterlilies
a touch of Monet
upon Rothley Low Lake
ground sinks away
a natural ha-ha
over the old railway
you’ve gone too far
turn back
history’s fraud –
the foggy fort – kindly meant
sounds of planes, birds
but rain (the demanding child)
will be heard
glimpse of modern barn
through a Brownian gap in trees
Beware
soft edges
take care
bonfire piled high
waiting.
A renga in celebration of Capability Brown
at Rothley Low Lake, Northumberland,
on 25th June 2016.
Participants:
Linda France
Sharon Higginson
Liz Kirsopp
Nick Owen
Jon Randall
Eileen Ridley
Anna Smith
Tony Smith
Christine Taylor
