This is my poem for the first day of Paul Brookes’ April poetry challenge. The painting is ‘Bittern’ by John Law. You can read all the contributions here. Many thanks to Paul for organising this challenge!

 

The bittern calls

The bittern calls in the sedge by the lake,
the still grey water mirror of sky,
the bittern booms in the voice of the wind
in the crags and the swell in the caves of the sea.

To hear that deep and lonely call,
in a lonely place, where a lonely sky
throws back the lightweight feathered things
of hawk and hen and swallow flight,
is to touch the chords of the world outside,
the wild and harsh world, raw and brief,
of wind-ruffled fur, a nest full of eggs,
of winters too long and summers too brief,

and you go back to the inside that now feels…