OF JOY
At once a voice arose among
The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
Of joy illimited…
The Darkling Thrush, Thomas Hardy
I was standing at our front gate at twilight
with the people I love the most – wife,
daughter, granddaughter, each of them by turns
gossiping and bantering the way
some families do – beneath low, stormy clouds
still blush tinged from the westering sun
when we heard goose cries as if from all
compass points, and suddenly the first skein
appeared over the roof, and another,
and another, their cries echoing
throughout the skyey amphitheatre:
pink-footed geese from the Arctic Ocean’s margins
wintering among us.
Kate Harrison
January 26, 2018We are under the route the geese take between Delamere Forest and the Marshes. I love to hear them coming and going.
Alison Robson
January 26, 2018I’m wondering when you wrote your poem ‘Of Joy’, since just this week, stepping out of my car I heard quacking and looked up to see geese flying over. Such an uplifting sight at the end of a working day.