Tuesday, October 4, 2011

On a different road

I took a drive today, without my camera! Grr. I was going to assess a pupil and I have to tell you I was really excited to learn where he lived, because of the road there! I'm not even sure that photographs would capture it for you anyway, so I've taken the liberty (and possibly leave of my senses) to write you a poem about it instead:



On a different road


On a different road, today,
The High Road, the Top Road, she called it.

The memory of an earlier journey:
A landscape that dropped away from the car towards a jewel-bright reservoir and then reared up again into tumbling hills.
Gates.
A chateau.
Houses, old and new, perched high on the ridge on my right, to drink in the view.

I wanted to take that road again.

Anticipation, knowing the view is coming,
as I drive along the High Road, the Top Road.
Something has already changed – here the trees are thicker, the colours older and richer.

The view is coming.

Past the hedge and the landscape drops. The reservoir is an azure-green patch in the hills.
The fields are hazy with grey-blue stalks of straw, remains of the harvest.
The sky is another stroke of grey-blue.
If an artist painted it, she’d have to dilute inks until they were homeopathic drops in the water.
If an artist painted it I wouldn’t believe her – ‘too wish-washy,’ I’d say.
But I’d be wrong.
Here, on a different road, everything is hazy,
Everything is watered, everything is intense.

Back on my own road, the colours return to their normal strength.
The soil is a strong red-brown, the sky is cerulean blue.
But I turn and, there, on the horizon, just a streak of hazy grey-blue.

11 comments:

Lx @ Twelve said...

It sounds beautiful - you've sung your rainbow....

Lx

Vintage Jane said...

I can see it now ... M x

Carol said...

Wow, I want to go there, love your poem.
Carol xx

Lola Nova said...

I love the line -
If an artist painted it, she’d have to dilute inks until they were homeopathic drops in the water.

Beautiful!

Marigold Jam said...

Brilliant Floss - I can see it without the addition of photos.

Angela said...

more poems like this, please, Floss!!

Donna said...

Floss, I LOVE your poem! Wonderful!! I write too and really appreciate good poems. It's all there in my mind thanks to you. :o)

I wrote a lengthy two replies to your questions about motivation so I sent them via email. :) Hope you enjoy your class! I'm sure you'll do a great job teaching.

Donna

Unknown said...

Beautiful. You give an impression not just of the landscape, but of the emotions as well.

Sue said...

That is lovely Floss, you really paint a picture in my imagination. Sometimes a photo doesn't really capture all your thoughts in the way that words can.

Travel With Lulu said...

Sounds lovely! Wonderful to meet another expat in blogland :) Have a great day! XOLaura

Kit said...

Ever so nice! I can see it thru your words. :) Kit