What to share?

Blue sky courtesy of Mike C. S. @mikecs on Unsplash

What to share?

A truck on the High Road

Is a rumble away. Fresh breeze,

cold noise, morning cloud.

A white morning is smaller

than usual. Less time.

The garden’s recovering,

sucking the soil. Where is the

water?

26/08/2018

—

This almost early autumn morning was probably the opposite of today.

Today, outside, the sky is blue, blue, blue. It is, indeed, three blues: a greyer, lighter one near the horizon, a firmer one arcing over us and above, at the cupola of today’s summer sky, it’s London summer blue.

London summer blue, so welcome;
rare in your cloudless expanse.

I trust that the sun will warm the day as it goes along. There was still (even) a chill as I took my morning walk at 8.30am. After ten years I still struggle to gauge the weather from the London sky – if there is blue sky, it might not be hot, if it’s overcast it might not be as cold as I think it could be. Yesterday, it was very grey and rained until after 10.30am. I was reluctant to head out for the day’s walk. I stalled (phone scrolling, Whatsapp calls) and lingered (taking my time to make a coffee in the cafetiere, decant and take along). When I finally set off, I had to stop at the first bench on the Bishops Avenue to remove the pullover, long-sleeved top and rain-jacket I had on.

It was warmer than
my reading of the sky.

Why am I writing about the weather? I am also talking about the sky. My neighbour in the loft is this changing scape – clouds, rain, wind, rainbows and man’s fireworks. My other neighbours are birds. The large crows that survey their realm from the end of the ridge-board and the magpies stomping on my roof. They make a determined noise.

“What to share?” is from a slim new volume that I compiled during lockdown. Most of the poems are from 2018, a time – like many before commuting stalled – when I used to write on London transport. The micro-collection is titled Jangle between Jangle and I’ll share more poems from it in the months ahead.

So, to, this is enough sharing
for today.

Update: There are now small clouds edging up from the horizon.