Beryl Cross
Mesolithic Summer
Always the summer sounds of falling trees
From lightning strikes or axes’ lethal flints;
Always hunting treks for honey bees.
Frequent the search for berries – darkest tints
The ripest – and for shellfish, on the shore,
Our feet, salt-soaked and strong, leave patterned prints.
We pluck wild fruits and harvest nuts to store
Against cruel winter, and in practised ways
Catch trout and salmon, gather herbs galore.
We trap wild birds and at the sun’s first rays
We raid their nests of eggs, tease them with cries
In imitation of their calls; mock praise.
Bracken is gathered, sun-strewn till it dries
For use in kindling and as covering
For earthen floors. Mixed with wild flowers it lies.
We bear our young at summer season, sing
Them to the sky and all its mystery;
Against wild beasts make each a magic ring.
We live by Nature’s laws; no-one is free
From those. The sun and moon criss-cross the earth
At their appointed times; our destiny –
Is it ordained for us always at birth?
From lightning strikes or axes’ lethal flints;
Always hunting treks for honey bees.
Frequent the search for berries – darkest tints
The ripest – and for shellfish, on the shore,
Our feet, salt-soaked and strong, leave patterned prints.
We pluck wild fruits and harvest nuts to store
Against cruel winter, and in practised ways
Catch trout and salmon, gather herbs galore.
We trap wild birds and at the sun’s first rays
We raid their nests of eggs, tease them with cries
In imitation of their calls; mock praise.
Bracken is gathered, sun-strewn till it dries
For use in kindling and as covering
For earthen floors. Mixed with wild flowers it lies.
We bear our young at summer season, sing
Them to the sky and all its mystery;
Against wild beasts make each a magic ring.
We live by Nature’s laws; no-one is free
From those. The sun and moon criss-cross the earth
At their appointed times; our destiny –
Is it ordained for us always at birth?
Page(s) 48
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