Hirsel 1

“The Moon is made of groundsel

The Sun is made of grass

And in the cornflower summer sky

There is a looking glass

Back and back and back and back

The further and further on

Look in the weed-dark herring pond

For the place where you come from”

For some reason, when copying out this rhyme from Old Merlaine, I kept writing the last line as “for the place where you belong”. Which has quite a different resonance. I just used to write off the top of my head, so have no idea why the sun might be made of grass, though reflected in water it might appear this. But perhaps it is just nonsense. However, the image above, a photograph taken whilst walking in the Hirsel and looking down into the small river that runs through it, the Leet, made me think of this long-ago, badly remembered rhyme. I rarely reread my own work. It is like something written by another person whom I know to be myself, as I can remember that person, but someone whose mind now works in a different way.

Another Poem from “Old Merlaine”

Another poem from some time ago. I think there are more Bitterbirdie Birds around now than there were then. Prescience….

A Poem from “Old Merlaine”

From the third book I had published, Old Merlaine, poems about an imaginary kingdom found as far as I can remember by the Moonwuzo, who fell into a bucket of water which opened up into this other country. But I’d have to check up. The idea came to me between the bottom and the top of an elevator in Green Park Underground Station. Those were the days….

I have no idea who the Silly Swimpswamp was based on.

Logo, Moonwuzo Books

Studio II

The Moonwuzo’s Sea-Song

Who is that walking on the dark sea sand?

The old Bride of the Wind

 

What is that staring out of the weedy pool?

The newborn Monster in its caul

 

What is that eerie chanting from the foam?

The mermaids’ gardening song

 

What is that shadow floating on the water?

The Fish-King’s daughter

 

Who bears those candles down by the Sea’s curled rim?

The children going home

 

from Old Merlaine

The Silly Swimpswamp

Poem from Old Merlaine

The Beaky Masher

Poem from Old Merlaine

Colonel Silver Shankskin

The Children Go To the Woods

From Old Merlaine