Evening in Malawi

We used to watch the sunset on the lake
while drinking tea as daylight turned to dusk,
bougainvillea above our heads still
dancing pink against the darkening blue
and, flying fast against the fading light
returning to its tree - a fish eagle.

Each day the haunting calls of the eagle
echoed from shire to shore across the lake.
A heavy bird, in flight it seemed so light
as it hunted for fish from dawn to dusk
moving quickly against the sky of blue
and diving in the lake so clear and still.

As the big bird passed we would sit quite still
awestruck by the grace of the fish eagle.
Sometimes we would walk in the evening blue
to look for other birds around the lake -
the weaver birds displaying until dusk
their wingtips fluttering in the fading light.

Sometimes we would see the flickering lights
of fishing boats floating on the lake, still
and motionless in the gathering dusk,
competing for food with the fish eagle.
The fishermen shouted across the lake,
the football scores echoing in the blue.

Once I sat on the beach, feeling quite blue
and watched the fireflies glimmering with light
as they gathered by the side of the lake.
I began to feel so peaceful and still -
above my head the call of the eagle
heralded another gathering dusk.

I left the beach to get home before dusk,
saw a kingfisher with its flash of blue
(a much smaller bird than the fish eagle)
startlingly bright in the pale evening light -
the colour stayed in my mind's eye as still
I walked to my house with views of the lake.

I heard the eagle call above the lake-
in the blue evening the world felt so still
and in deepening dusk my heart became light.


Unleash the Poem Within recommends using the sestina to explore memory.
Read Write Poem this week asks us to play about with form, using one form to rewrite a poem that was originally in another form. This poem, my first attempt at a sestina, is sort of a reworking of After Sunset, Lake Malawi.

The Talking Horse and the Sad Girl and the Village Under the Sea by Mark Haddon

A poetry collection from the author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime, this is a wonderfully varied book (for some reason, some critics see this as a weakness in a poetry collection, I don't, I revel in poetic variety). These poems are wonderfully imaginative and vivid, sometimes surreal, sometimes funny, sometimes sad and sometimes beautifully insightful. I could make long quotations from almost any poem in the book but I'll just stick with this, the ending of A Tally Stick about a farmhand learning to count:

Then pausing at the gate one night
he thinks of seven. Not trees. Not dogs.
Just seven. Like The Plough
before God put the stars in.

The collection also includes elegant new versions of Odes by Horace and a poetic condensation of a novel by John Buchan. I was sent this book by another member of Bookcrossing and now need to pass it on to the next on the list, but I may need to go out and buy a copy...

Pet Three Names Meme

I've been tagged a lot recently and I'll get round to doing them all soon! Firstly, Diana Moll of The Qi Papers tagged me with the Pet Name Meme. In case you aren't familiar with The Naming of Cats, in the Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, by T.S. Eliot, cats all have three names! Rabbits have at least three names.
Here are the rules:
You must link to the originator of the meme ( that is Tara ), list the following rules, and then tell:
1-The name that the family uses daily ( such as Peter, Augustus, Alonzo or James ).
2-The name that is particular, a name that is peculiar, and more dignified ( such as Munkstrap, Quaxo or Coricopat )
3-What you are doing when you are thinking of the name only you know, and will never confess, that deep inscrutable name. Then tag three cats ( or other creatures) to give us their names.

Anya's answers would have been:
1. Anya
2. Anyanka
3. lying sprawled out after eating dandelions

Most of the blogging rabbits I know have answered this meme already (or are thinking about it!) so I'll just tag Inland Empire Girl who has plenty of pets who could answer this meme, but anyone else out there with a pet who'd like to do this meme, feel free and let me know in the comments that you've done it so I can find your answers!

senryu - birdwatching

woman birdwatching
in the city centre -
people stop and stare.

City Farms and Community Gardens in the UK

As I'm soon going to be starting a new job with the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens, I thought I'd say a bit about what they are (also because Rabbits Guy seemed to want to know more too!). City Farms and Community Gardens are locally based green spaces found mostly in urban areas of the UK. They offer people opportunities to get closer to nature and find out more about the relationship between farms and food as well as to learn about the environment and to gain practical skills such as gardening and animal husbandry. Many of them offer training places for people with learning disabilities or with mental health problems. You can find out more about their work and, if you're in the UK, find your local City Farm or Community Garden at the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens website.

Weekend in Perth

We had a lovely weekend in Perth, the weather was perfect for late Spring - warm and sunny with a light breeze. Perth is a nice small city with lots to do, especially nice nature walks! We went on several walks along the River Tay. It was beautiful to watch the swallows and house martins diving low over the river, while the swifts did their aerobatics higher up and the gulls glided by, some of them even trying to copy the more acrobatic birds by swooping down after flies. We followed part of the Perth Sculpture Walk which showcases several pieces of modern sculpture along the banks of the Tay. We also wandered into a more wooded part of the riverbank where we heard whitethroats and saw a flock of long tailed tits, several blackbirds and a very good number of song thrushes (song thrushes were once a really common species in the UK but have declined badly in recent years and it was lovely to see and hear so many of them).


We also wandered up Kinnoull Hill, which, on the lower slopes, is beautiful woodland, full of birdsong (especially the descending trill of the willow warbler) (see photo above) and more open at the top, with steep cliffs falling down to the plains below.

a ruined tower
beside perilous cliffs -

a peregrine hunts

It was wonderful to see this bird of prey as it glided past and dived near us several times. They're quite uncommon and certainly I've rarely seen them anywhere. On the bus home we saw three deer in the woods just outside Perth.

Two Art Exhibitions in Edinburgh

On Thursday I went to two art exhibitions:

North Light - Contemporary Photography (on until 8 June at the City Art Centre ) is a varied and interesting collection. A lot of the photos on show are social commentary, ranging from black and white photos of Edinburgh in the 1960s to more recent vibrantly colourful photos of a Sikh wedding ceremony. My favourites were the black and white photos taken in Orkney - Thomas Joshua Cooper's stark landscape of part of the Old Man of Hoy and Albert Watson's series of photos of stones - a standing stone and large scale close ups of ancient mortar and pestle. I left wishing more photos had been on show....

Across the road from the City Art Centre in the Fruitmarket Gallery was an exhhibition of works from Lucy Skaer (on until 9 July). Skaer's work is varied and interesting but sometimes feels to me to be too experimental, just for the same of being experimental. The highlight for me was her large scale reworking of the iconic Japanese print of the Great Wave by Katsushika Hokusai , her version is entirely made up of grey spirals of various sizes - the exhibition is worth going to purely for this piece.