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Come the Spring

Posted by Silver Spun Sand on March 12, 2011 - 18:50
from the ABC set Silver Spun Sand Poems

The hay-barn could tell many a story -
resplendent with spider-webs, bedecked
with shrivelled remnants of dried
and tattered wings; twisted corpses
of insects, long-since dead, ensnared
in tangled, tensile threads... crumpled
magazines – newsprint, ochre, crisp –
curled with age, stacked on some
long-redundant mattress, springs exposed,
horsehair and wadding chewed into scraps
by marauding field-mice and rats.

Rickety stacks of rusted paint-cans;
Victorian Red, set solid as cement,
stashed on worm-riddled boxes
that once stored the Coxes and rosy
James Grieves from an orchard,
since many years – gone to seed.
The smell of times-past – the ghost
of children’s laughter, hung up to dry
from gnarled and twisted rafters, where
swallows dive through a hole in the roof,
lashed by a wild, December storm...

their cone-shaped nest, safely cradled
by ancient oak beams, ready-lined
for next year’s brood. Cruel irony then,
come the spring, all of this will be gone,
and in the field where once it stood...
where bearded barley grew, so tall,
a ‘cash-crop’ will have been sown...
‘affordable’ houses, in neat little rows.
Laid to dust, the barn, with its Norfolk
thatch roof, the swallows called ‘home’.

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Comments

Highhat | March 12, 2011 - 22:36

Really a sad picture Tina- so much atmosphere and then turned to neat little houses. loved all the imagery in this one- so well described- you paint such lovely pictures with your words.
;)Pia

fatboy74 | March 12, 2011 - 23:28

This is a delight to read Tina - so much in it. A descriptive joy. :-)

seashore | March 13, 2011 - 07:05

I agree with fatboy - a very evocative piece, Tina.

Silver Spun Sand | March 13, 2011 - 08:59

Thanks so much for reading this one, Pia;-) Glad you enjoyed it and I much appreciate your kind comment.
Have a lovely weekend.

Tina;-)

Silver Spun Sand | March 13, 2011 - 09:02

Many thanks, fb. As with many of my poems, this has been literally years in the writing. Inspired, in fact, by an old barn in our garden we 'inherited' with the house, some ten years ago now. It is still standing, and is home to a family of squirrels as well as the swallows, who, hopefully, will return this springs, as per usual.

Tina;-)

Silver Spun Sand | March 13, 2011 - 09:03

Kind of you to say so, Coral;-) Thank you. Pleased you enjoyed.

Tina

skinner_jennifer | March 13, 2011 - 11:34

Hi Tina,

your description of the barn, was so amazingly
beautiful, it's such a shame when buildings that
have been around for such a long time, get pulled
down, when you think of all the history and the
ghosts of the past attached to the building, then
to be replaced by modern houses.

Thankyou for a beautiful read.

Jenny.

Silver Spun Sand | March 13, 2011 - 11:52

It is indeed a shame, Jenny and not only for the buildings themselves, which are part of our heritage. I was only reading in the newspaper this week how the number of species of our wild life is dwindling quite remarkably. Many birds that were once common, e.g. sparrows and skylarks, are now being seen less and less, and all because we humans, are eating away at their natural habit with changes in farming, etc. and of course, building on every available square metre of land.

Pleased you liked this one, and thanks for your lovely comment.

Tina;-)

MistakenMagic | March 13, 2011 - 17:10

'twisted corpses
of insects, long-since dead, ensnared
in tangled, tensile threads...'

- love these lines, Tina. A truly beautiful poem. Sorry I haven't been around for a while - just been snowed under with essays now we're approaching the end of term! Seriously well done on this piece ;)

Magic xxx

Silver Spun Sand | March 13, 2011 - 18:45

Great to hear from you, Magic;-) I guessed you were 'snowed under', so I'm pleased you came up for air and that you enjoyed this poem. Many, many thanks...hey, and see you around kid;-)

Tina xxx

littleditty | March 15, 2011 - 13:03

i want to be there now with a packed lunch and a flask of tea! Lovely sounds and description -

*many years since* - one day soon, i hope, a trip to the real countryside if there is any, anywhere, anymore! xx

Silver Spun Sand | March 15, 2011 - 13:49

Hi there, ld;-) 'A packed lunch and a flask of tea'...I think we have to wait a while, but you have made me impatient now.

Thanks for reading. Pleased you enjoyed. And you are so right...there's not much countryside left, sadly.

Tina xx