• TOC
  Letting Go INTRODUCTION    INTRODUCTION - James Crowden SHERBORNE    Sherborne Lake    Spirit    Hebridean Camp: April    Son of the morning    Loon    Passing time NEW FOREST    New Forest    Gar Gar    Red Berries    Stone Circle    Dawn on Fleet Street (Untitled) SOUTHAMPTON    University Intellectualism    Drought    Poor Man’s Street    Sob Heart    Summer    Italian Cemetery    Moon on a Tightrope    Waiting    Lunar Philosophy    A Word HONG KONG    Easter Leave    Orange blossom    Boat people fishing at night    Beetle    Hermit    …    Lest the memory grow dim    ……….    Reflection on Past Time    In Chinese Mode: Thinking of a Friend    Voyage to Japan – MV Hermod    ………. CAMBRIDGE    Cambridge    Blown from these Mountains    ..........    ..........    ..........    ..........    ..........    After Africa AFRICA    Tassili Fresco    Africa    Leopard INDIA    In a Dark Time    ……….    ……….    ……….    Seychelles GREECE    Iliovasilema    Cabavis    Paros    Islands WALES    Tapping on Stones above Pyllau Clais    Maenllwyd - Three Poems    ……….    ……….    Welsh Winter: Maenllwyd    ……….    Comet Above The Yard    The Fenceless Gate (for Hughie)    Flickering Lamp Hotel (to Carol)    Welsh Mandala    The Silence    July at Maenllwyd COTSWOLDS    Christmas Eve; Driving Home    Separation    Scent of Wisteria    Old Man’s Toes    Christmas cards - around again    Spring    Les Roches Fleuries    Bird Dawn On Mendip FAMILY    Dad    HCC in Memoriam    Uncle Frank DARK TIME    Black Rooks    Quarelling    Children    Trap    Warning    The Man in the Park    Merlin Woods BUDDHISM    Inspiring Words from the Teacher    Zendo Opening Ceremony    Contract for an Occasional Retreat (Recite together:)    Aspirational Prayer for Daily Use    On Pursuing That Which Leaves No Tracks    Exhortation    Benediction    Maenllwyd Mandala    Mealtime Ceremonial at the Maenllwyd Retreat Centre    Letting Go    Shaman    Buddha    Simply an Absence    Old No Eye    Old Myoko-ni    Saint Mollaise of Holy Island    ………. MISCELLANEOUS    Lightenment    Equinox    Departure    Good intentions    Kabir    Tribute    Tylocin : Poland.    Yes    Quelque Part sur Mer    London in November    America - Windows of the Train.    Small town - Northern Poland    Klamerz in Kazimierz    Mametz Wood    Mametz Wood    SUMMER LADAKH    ……….    Taking Tourists to Zangskar    Poem in Two Voices - John Crook and James Crowden INDIAN PILGRIMAGE 1996    Bodhgaya    Calcutta    Bus travel    Railway    Banaras    Kali shrine    Humayuns tomb    Near the hotel ANTARCTICA    First Ice    Wandering Albatross    Snowy Petrels    Elephant Seal    Sheathbill    Leopard Seal    Penguins    Orca    Wintry Return ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS    ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• Previous
• Next

Red Berries

Treading the grey forest of my childhood's dreams

where, melancholic under ghostly beech,

metallic hollies stand around

and frost crisped leaves rustle

to disclose wet humus unfrozen on the ground

the sudden discovery of a half iced pool

reawakens old moods under a carapace of time

The dusk is burying the snowclad heath

and frozen air chills cheeks to flame the face

before the waiting hearth

wind clapped branches suddenly feather snow in air

and puddles, wholly ice, lift like plates from moulds

The wild beats of pony hooves ring like a bell the hardened land.

Here in the fawn twigged woods

with the rare squirrel and the straggling tit flock

hurrying to glean last morsels from the naked twigs

old perspectives emerge among cold sentinels

empty trees netting the tide turned sky

Visiting the winter forest is like

rising at six of a Christmas morning

shivering down a cup of tea

walking the snow muffled streets to the cold church

for a piece of bread and a sip of wine

the fire below the altar suddenly

taking blood red berries home

1970. Revised from 1954?