THE COUNTRY LIFE
The sheep in the field
like stuffed rolls of wool
stick legs that sometimes jump
and sometimes fold.
The Land-rover comes down at half past nine
into the wood
that is half cut down
the beech and oak lay like martyrs on the ground
and conifers in serried rows
are the newly planted goods
my heart sinks to see these trees
and to know it will be a dark, dark wood.
The pear tree unties its knots
of fat white string
and the daffodils hold their trumpets
up to the light.
The birds are too busy to sing
hopping and perching on shrubs
and trees and turning to me
with their unique piercing tweet.
The garden is calling
ground elder and periwinkle
with their long, entangled roots
purple star like flowers floating on waving stems.
And the deep clusters of comfrey
that have taken over
far too much of the garden
with their black, rat like roots.
Eight years on my own
in some ways I have grown
in others I feel like a baby
without a proper home.
]
This place is so old
with its ceilings all bumpy
and the staircase carpet
slippery and lumpy.
It changed my life, this house
with its sash windows
now painted Stiffkey Blue,
the lawn was a football pitch
when the boys were young
and now they hardly visit at all
caught up in London life
without a country view.
But the sun is shining
and the sky is blue
sketched with gauzy clouds
that soften the heartache
inside of you.
Photo of Jehane Markham by Heini Schneebeli
Jehane Markham is a true poet...
her poems glow like impressionist paintings.
Adrian Mitchell
Love wells up out of Jehane Markham's
work... it made me cry.
Gillian Allnutt
To contact
Jehane Markham
please email
jm@jehanemarkham.co.uk
Norfolk house: Mary MacCarth
EVENTS
12 May
Jehane will be launching her new book: Forty Poems
at the Owl Bookshop at 7pm.
209 Kentish Town Road
London NW5 2JU
020 7485 7793
30 June
Zoom reading with poet Paul Lyalls
My Life in Five Poems
A video recording for the Electric Medway online Festival with Natalie Rozario on cello.
www.electricmedway.co.uk
SIXTEEN SUNSETS
– POETRY MEETS THE BLUES
Click to see review of Sixteen Sunsets
Now available on Spotify
Listen and see:
New Audio poem:
Above and Below The Water Line
Click to link to listen
