Colours I saw, walking

The sky overhead is lilac;
bright lapiz lazuli swirled higher.
Through bare twigs of beech
a band of pale copper spreads
above the curves and grooves
of hills dark green in distance
ochre hazed where the giant sun
hangs low and brilliant. Air, cool
fresh and hushed as if waiting
makes each bird's song clear
piercing as the sweetest pain.

The path's edged with wild plum
just coming into bloom, rare petals
white and delicate, their scent strong.
Beyond the hedge a new landscape's
slopes, stark rich orange, against the sky
seem strange, loosely piled sand
new cracked with dark blue
zigzag sluice tracks from last night's storm
echoing lightning. I pass irridescant
white metal cubes a metre tall
at the horizon's ledge
placed at long intervals, like slabs
of light, jade, amethyst, amber mixed
where they faced the setting sun.
One had its lid flung up, bearing
a criss cross pattern striating
a shield of thick aqua shadow,
blazoning the purple air.
Around its base rooks lamp black stalked
or, ungainly, shallow flew again,
the contrast of their dark with the metal's
brightness unintended, wild, beautiful.
By the remains of a fence, its pole
still tall, the black mesh fallen
like a fishing net in furls fine
from its top thick curl drifts
round sleek alien planes
of the last metal cube.

As I turn a breeze shifts
knife blade cold; the air
suddenly suffused with grey.
Now catkins cling in a mass wind angled
dirty gold as old braid in the khaki
tangled dimness of the hazel copse.
I hurry up the field's side
as wind strengthens to a diamond fierce demand.
Then, in the woods haven holly leaves
billow belly up pale green
in the whooshing blows. Bare oak trunks
sway, limbs creaking, grind
as they meet. I rush head down
the last leg home as sleet
iced rain lashes down : see the house
shut but a cell of one glowing window's
electric nucleus welcomes me back