The Oasis Field
Oasis field I call you, a remnant,
hemmed in by neater walls, improved pasture,
arable crops. The money grubbers have
dropped you from their repertoire.
Too damp and boggy to bother with,
you sit at the base of huge erratic
boulders, your feet steeped deep in
pools fringed with spearmint and rushes.
The boisterous beck rolls round your
northern border and thickly, blackthorns drop
delicate white camouflage onto bluebell spears
and the burnished shields of kingcups.
The curlew nests in your tussocked
arms, and her sharp defensive cries
curdle the blood, still the unwary step
of the invader, be it weasel, sqirrel, man.
Oak and hazel, alder and willow are your
ramparts, old and wise warriors.
Blackberry thongs and honeysuckle
twines strengthen your ancient keep.
Inside, the tender heads of lady’s smock
and speckled eyes of forget-me-nots
are followed by tougher troops,
scabious plates and knapweed nobs,
nodding like soldiers in proud helmets
at squadrons of butterflies, blue and
bright, patrolling yarrow and meadowsweet
for signs of disaffection.
Sometimes in summer they let in the herd,
black beasts led by a red-haired bull,
to chomp and chew and crash around,
Viking marauders on a smash and grab raid.
But come the autumn rains, come
spiteful winter weather, the beck again
spills her silver armour into your lap,
and the hollies stand triumphant.
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The