A Pink and A Blue Field and A Form by Mark Goodwin

Lodge Farm, Ullesthorpe, December, 2017

closest

to the farm

house is home

barn field

west from there is

hovel field and

between these the bridal

runs lined

by a ditch &

a hedge &

a few

ash

trees

.

hovel field slopes and

faces

south-east

a convex that

when

covered (as

now)

in snow catches

three

o’ clock december

sun-slant so

a pink dome glows

backed

by sky’s blue

while

willows round

the pond on

the brow

and the isolated ash

just west

strike

horizon-postures

lit

in

silence

.

we stride across

a snow-rosy

crust our

steps

crackle on

light a pink

field holds

persons’

moments

as

a hare’s

prints tear

in    vis    ib

ility’s speed ov

er a frail

ty of water’s

solid

.

my son crouches

down to a

small snow

less patch

of ground a

scrape

rimmed with

crin

kled ice its

shallow

soil-hollow

is gloss

y polished

by a body’s

sett

ling heat he

touches

earth just

this moment ex

posed to

sky

.

at    three                       or

there

abouts                           at

december’s end when

lit snow lays

no self

over the slow

ly growing crop

the hedge casts

shadow across

home barn field in

such

a way so a

strider

may

( on two

feet or four

paws )

pass

through the hedge’s

gap

from

 hovel field ’s bubble

of snow-pinked

glow in                          to                              home barn ’s

     vault of

     charged blue

***

Mark Goodwin has published with various poetry houses, including Leafe Press, Longbarrow Press & Shearsman Books. His latest chapbook – a compressed mountain travelogue called Erodes On Air – was recently published in North America by Middle Creek. A Pink & A Blue Field & A Form is from Mark’s full-length collection – At – to be published by Shearsman. Mark lives with his partner on a narrowboat just north of Leicester. Follow him on twitter @kramawoodgin

The illustration at the head of the poem is Winter Sun by Dominique Cameron.