In Memoriam Jaydee
in the running shadows of cloud
the spring-back of trodden grass
the snuffle of wind through the thicket
the pricked ears of flowering gorse
the crooks of rising fern
and the bronze flanks of hill bracken,
forest mists, sphagnum’s star-suck,
wind’s attempts to finger-print a lake,
the brush of blown down
and the tease of forget-me-nots.
Chris Kinsey. May 2006
Chris, an advocate of these wonderful hounds, used to be an English and Drama lecturer in Newtown, Powys and is now a much published and prize winning poet. Her anthology Kung Fu Lullabies (Ragged Raven Press 2004) attracted much critical acclaim and is endorsed by our patron, U A Fanthorpe, Chris’ s favourite living poet. Chris also writes for Greyhound Express, Greyhound Rescue Wales magazine.
Weather Vanes, taken from Kung Fu Lullabies, evocatively sums up for the clerk her time in Powys, with its emblematic red kites:
Yesterday’s fog extinguished colour,
The only birds were puffed blackbirds
And woodcock returning to roost
Like flung sods of peat.
Today’s sun ignites
Last year’s bracken.
Two red kites spiral then hover
Buckling under the span of blue.
Though our feet crunch ice nails
Gorse flames with new blooms.