Day Thirteen -Blackthorn

-Close up of Blackthorn aka sloe fruit from Wikipedia

Heartsease

St Euphrasia of the cheerful mind/ carried heavy stones/ from one place to another/to subdue/ temptation/ I lift heavy pots/ plant bulbs up for winter/push in violas as top layer/ Violas/ heart’s delight/ tickle-my-fancy/ come-and-cuddle-me/Cool weather thrivers/ hardy flowers with faces/frost survivors/bounce back/ stay alive/ bloom again/Three-faces-in-a-hood/ the magic number/ eases heart’s heaviness.

-Ann Cuthbert

-Kerry Darbishire

I, Blackthorn

My leaves in autumn yellow, winter fall
leave me a stark twisted black skeleton.
I dwell on woodland edge as thicket wall
hedgerow. Hawthorn, Elder companions.

My barkskin rough, scaly, bright orange flood
under my dark grey surface, thickets dark,
dense, thorny, sapwood light yellow, heartwood
brown. Thorns long and sharp if pricked, turn septic. Mark

musk-scented small, delicate, white flowers
oval petalled cluster into a star
shape early spring. Blossoms, thin, rounder
tooth edged white, with red-tipped threads. Globular

small blue-black or deep purplish, round lip glossed
summer berries ripen after first frost.

-Paul Brookes