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14th Anniversary Edition, Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Four Nov-Dec 2023.
Sudden Fall, poems by Phil Lynch.
Sudden Fall
The leaves fell on Saturday,
succumbing to the firm force
of a sudden September storm.
Autumn had come unannounced,
awkward, an uninvited guest
at an intimate dinner party.
The ground a confusion of greens,
many in their prime, smooth to the touch,
clinging to the illusion of foreverness.
Nature took care to sprinkle them
with a camouflage of half-turned reds and yellows
to lighten the shame, share in the shock.
The trees stood bereft in the after-calm,
stoic in the stillness of silent thought,
uncertain what to expect next, a feast or a fall.
Wintering
Pale winter sun creeps low across bare quiet fields,
a wave of biting wind whips through near naked trees,
the brighter sounds of summer long since switched to mute,
from ditch-to-ditch slink stealthy shapes in search of food.
all aboard
when the boat comes in to the cove
it rolls in the waves while they wade
with all that they own in their heads
retained to be shared far away
on some shore they never have known
passages paid with lives upturned
the children first clamber on board
their minds by adventure consumed
while the adults crush on real tight
their goal to survive with each breath
enveloped by dangerous tides
the dark boat sinks into the night
© Phil Lynch
Phil Lynch lives in Dublin, Ireland. His work has appeared in a wide range of literary journals and anthologies and has also featured on national and local radio arts shows. He is a regular performer of his work at poetry and spoken word events and festivals in Ireland and further afield. His poetry collection In a Changing Light (Salmon Poetry) was published in 2016 and a new collection is in the works. This is a link to info about my collection ‘In a Changing Light’ (Salmon Poetry): https://www.salmonpoetry.com/author-details.php?ID=394&a=284