Nature is for Haunting *
Winston Plowes
Spring
A breath of you shouts for me
to choose a tree without a beam —
You dropped a year into the moss
and shreds behind may be pursued
Discretion in the bird’s of March
weather-worn but rested on surmise
God bless his suddenness
Fade softly into amber stars
***
Summer
His speech was like a butterfly
upon a passing universe
could trace a tide of alibi
as men made sky without design
And in its sea, a tempest mashed
as if the grass were gaunt
and her door emerged — a summer
as impossible as humming-birds
to push the scion of Idleness
where creatures understood
***
Autumn
The window sealed inscrutable
to wind unhooked that staggered
Eyes of giant autumn rain,
the lightning showed a song
Gone the sky with spangled hems
just quartering the yellow days
And low, a song pervades his covert
Stood still the leaves did scoop like hands
The orchards of his lips not feebly parted
flung out the tunes that wrecked the air
***
Winter
Who robbed the dazzling sapphire skies?
What sorcery had touched the trees
Upon nature’s blissful alighting
trusting the drunk with her secret
Who overheard the soft flake of bees
that suffer the murmuring of snow
What finer peace could fleece a day
*Methodology — “Nature is for Haunting” takes the nature themed poems of Emily Dickinson as source texts for found poetry. In each case individual words and word strings have been harvested from five different poems to compose four new pieces, one for every season. It is hoped that this new work echoes both the style and rhythm of Dickinson’s but also reframes her vocabulary to present something new and contemporary.
In a letter to a friend, Dickinson once wrote: “Nature is a Haunted House—but Art—a House that tries to be haunted.”
Winston Plowes shares his floating home in Calderdale UK with his seventeen-year-old cat, Sausage. He teaches creative writing in schools, universities and to local groups while she dreams of Mouseland. His latest collection, Tales from the Tachograph, was published jointly with Gaia Holmes in 2018 by Calder Valley Poetry. www.winstonplowes.co.uk
