Nature Writing by Jeremy Hughes

You see your childhood in your green-leafed head.

Sticklebacks and newts in a stringed glass jar

are quite enough to stave off dread.

Oh yes, you know the market’s saturated,

but that thrush you nursed could be a star.

Your childhood’s green in your leafy head.

Remember, too, the fox that slept beneath the shed:

there’s so much more that can be stellar,

each one to counter existential dread.

Now you swim a river from its high-peak head,

and season-song the fauna of a coast’s winter haar.

But your childhood, in your leafy head,

is a green-fused movie, nature’s stead-

ing of the space within your heart’s bazaar.

There’s plenty, here, to keep away the dread.

So when it’s time to submit it to be read,

the fox and thrush will sing together.

You see, your childhood in your wooded head

is quite enough to stave off dread.

***

Jeremy Hughes has published two novels – Wingspan (2013) and Dovetail (2011). He was awarded first prize in the Poetry Wales competition and was short-listed for an Eric Gregory Award. He also publishes short fiction, life-writing and reviews. His essay ‘A Risca Boy’s Birds’ concludes the Little Toller anthology, Going to Ground (2024). He teaches Creative Writing at the University of Oxford.

The image at the head of this poem is from Pixabay.