Manor Farm, Gotherington

The walls stooped
Under the weight of age.
Windows frowned
From gables
Out towards
Wicked, old, Cleeve hill.

At the front, a cote,
Devoid of dove and egg,
Stood sentry and I, a child
Inside its bell,
Hushed by such anatomy,
Wondering at
The innards of the past.

In one barn, an old
Gig, crippled and wheelless
Carried no one to prayer now.

I remember
To the side, a pond,
Rich of reed and birds
Translating the summer
Into song.
Then recall
My father talking of the coracle
That used to teacup him to the
Other side

While older boys, in France now,
Not their village, left
Mothers for the mud.

All this memory arrives
In response to a photograph
Of my great aunt,
A thin-tendrilled beauty
In black velvet and fox fur
Walking up the drive
Into her widowhood.

https://wildcourt.co.uk/new-work/two-poems-by-bernard-pearson/

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Bernard Pearson

poet & author

Bernard lives in Oswestry, UK. He is published in around one hundred journals and magazines worldwide. He is also a spoken-word performer, finalist in both the John Tripp Spoken Word Competition and The All Wales Comic Verse Competition. Plus a biographer and prize-winning short story writer. His work has appeared in many publications. In 2017 a selection of his poetry ‘In Free Fall’ was published by Leaf by Leaf  Press. In 2019 he won second prize in The Aurora Prize (an international competition in Poetry) for his poem ‘Manor Farm’ and his first novel ‘Where the Willows End‘ was published by Leaf by Leaf Press. His second novel is due out in 2022.

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