You took my dreams;

 

The swallows of my autumn years,

and banished them without a care.

You defiled and destroyed their virgin flight,

ones that remained have migrated to the winter sun.

 

So hopeful and fresh in the youth of their summer state;

but summer soon passed, and I did not see it happen.

The leaves of youth have fallen and…

the sorrow of winter tears cover them in frost.

I still hear their distant cries,

and the smell of their season.

 

I have their memories and the calls of their summer song.

So long departed, so far away, but…

I still feel the warmth of their summer.

Goodbye my Swallow friends, may you find

your dreams on a distant shore.

Dreams that are not mine, but can be lived,

once more…

 

© The Swallow’s Farewell 27/03/2012

by Alexandra Carr-Malcolm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The mossy skin of stark stone walls,

a breath of clouds in a cold October sky,

the haunting call of the hovering kestrel.

The bleak love affair with the unyielding Peaks.

 

The tangled sheep huddled against the cold North wind,

wool kissed barbs of boundaries breeched,

the wandering yew abandoned on the verge of betrayal.

The dark love affair with the relentless Peaks.

 

Sca Fell, Peaks probe the gloomy skies,

the bursting spring cascades to punish rocks beneath,

purple rinse resilience of old heather hair.

The stark love affair with the unwieldy Peaks.

 

Shadows play hide and seek with rocks and hills.

The mournful cry of an old church bell

calls back the congregation of fallen sheep,

to worship the affair with pagan Peaks.

 

The low slung fog smothers both road and fell,

hushed tones hold the secrets of the…

Release day! Follow the link below to purchase a copy of “Western Haiku: A Collection”, our latest anthology of new poetry by the best new poets around for £4.99 + P&P. Ebooks will be available soon on Amazon and other sites.

Use code FAST5 to get 5% off your order, and help support our chosen charity Scope (50% of proceeds from the sale of the anthology go to them).

Also, as part of our charitable ethos, all publications effectively help charity, as 10% of our overall profit at the end of the year will be donated to charity. Aren’t we nice?

Go grab a copy, and pick up a copy of our other publications whilst you’re at it 😉

Direct Link to Publication – HERE.

Also, follow the links in our publications page to purchase from our full catalogue.

Have a great day, WordPress. We’re off to plug the hell…

Hello all, we have a few big things to share with you. Are you sitting comfortably? Then we shall begin.

First up, for those of you not connected to our Facebook page (go on – its on the left there), we can finally announce the release date of our anthology “Western Haiku: A Collection”, and some more details on it.

This collection of Haiku and non-traditional “Western” Haiku will be released on the 4th of June, and it will be available as a paperback copy on Lulu for £4.99 and as an eBook on Amazon (and hopefully other sites) for £2.99. With a great, crisp, clean cover design by A D Warr, and edited by our editors Reg Davey and Elena Hulme, it includes poetry by some of our regularly featured writers and new writers who you will want to check out.

With proceeds from the sale of the anthology…