Poetry extracts by James Crowden

Extracts from
IN TIME OF FLOOD
© James Crowden

Somerset Light	Winter
Somerset light Sullen and damp The shroud A shawl A solitary fastness Within which people move Tarnished by its vapour Struggling To meet the midday sun A faint halo Rivers, rhynes and runnels Connected by thin causeways Fuelling the flatness The ghosts of withy trees Marsh memory lingering still	murky in the mist brooding winter's mantle its invisible spell cast binding moors and levels a thick blanket slow and sluggish seeping into their joints the rising damp to penetrate the veil half hovering over ditches islands thin slice of cattle breeding land uneasy and unrepentant caught between water and mist a quirkiness settling in
The solemn grey pulse … out of which only the heron rises.

Heron Fishing	Heron Rising
Silent and stealthy sleek Narrow neck craned and tufted Poised above the ripple Sly sentinel Vain admirer of his own reflection About to move The sharp punishing blade Struggling Fractures the water Swift purpose	steely still, beady eyed the dapper dandy hidden in the reeds monocled hunchback lurks like sculpture fleet and stabbing darts the rising damp pinions its prey gulps and gulps again
Grey merging with sky … swallows silver on the green bank
Long and lanky, the fisher king Undercarriage trailing Hefty wings massage the air As if casually patrols Back alleys and damp waterways The shamanic realm Slowly sauntering seawards Slippery and slimey Half hidden in tidal sludge The dark low, slow, flow Still wriggling within the belly	legs it like a stork ungainly gawky rises up its kingdom ditches interlaced sky and water bends of sluggish rivers oozey eel laden mud surfaces from the depths of the soft flat fat land last in flight meal.

In Time of Flood

extracts

Rain and river run
Succulent and sinuous
Winding its way seaward
Heady in hidden depths
Merge and overspill
The heavy water's cargo
Slowly seeping
Wanders dark and quivering

A strange mirror
Polished and poised
The water's sheen shimmer
Reed rustled and ruckled
Strewn and scattered
Weaving and weary worn

The sky stretched and stretching
A staunch saddle

wild waters rise, rebellious
each sensuous bend
curved currents brim
brown banks burst their bodice
breathe more freely, let go in reams
swift in silt
draws the land down, sodden and submerged
between the withy beds….

held up to the eye
the slice of light
skimming rank sedge
the reflected light dazzle
sudden furious flurry of small waves
slither of silver meadows…

taut like a canvas
over which geese wheel.