Winding ways


Theres somthing rich & joyful to the mind 
To view through close & field those crooked shreds 
Of footpaths that most picturesqly wind 
From town to town or some tree hidden sheds 
Where lonely cottager lifes peace enjoys 
Far far from strife & all its troubled noise 
The pent up artizan by pleasure led 
Along their winding ways right glad employs 
His sabbath leisure in the freshening air 
The grass the trees the sunny sloping sky 
From his weeks prison gives delicious fare 
But still he passes almost vacant bye 
The many charms that poesy finds to please 
Along the little footpaths such as these 

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Birds & all both great and small


Not only wood-larks spare but all 
From sparrows to the wren 
For birds & all both great and small 
Are sent for use to men 
Altho some times by hung
For faults so small their blood to shed 
Is cruel & severe 
For the few corns from you they take 
Their Songs do thrice repay 
Then spare them all for Musicks sake 
And let 'em fly away

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Images by my friend #CarryAkroyd

Ladybird


Ladybird ladybird where art thou flown 

Thou wert here in the morning before the sun shone 

Just now up the bowl o' the damson tree 

You passed the gold lichen & got to the grey 

Ladybird ladybird where can you be 

You climb up the tulips & then fly away 


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Its little brig


I love the verse that mild & bland
Breathes of green fields & open sky
I love the muse that in her hand
Bears flowers of native poesy
Who walks nor skips the pasture brook
In scorn but by the drinking horse
Leans o'er its little brig to look
How far the sallows lean across

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Image by my friend #RachelBurch

Rain-drops


And full sweet it was to look

How clouds misted o'er the hill
Rain-drops how they dimp'd the brook
Falling fast & faster still
While the gudgeons darting by
Cring'd 'neath water-grasses shade
Startling as each nimble eye
Saw the rings the dropples made

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The little pond


I love the little pond to mark at spring

When frogs & toads are croaking round its brink
When blackbirds yellow bills gin first to sing
& green woodpecker rotten trees to clink
I love to see the cattle muse & drink
& water crinkle to the rude march wind
While two ash dotterels flourish on its brink
Bearing key bunches children run to find
& water buttercups they're forced to leave behind

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Winter is past


Winter is past—the little bee resumes
Her share of sun & shade & oer the lea
Hums its first hymnings to the flowers perfumes
& wakes a sense of gratfulness in me
The little daisey keeps its wonted pace
Ere march by april gets disarmd of snow
A look of joy opes on its smiling face
Turnd to that power that suffers it to blow

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Regret


O take this world away from me

Its strife I cannot bear to see
Its very praises hurt me more
Than een its coldness did before
Its hollow ways torment me now
And start a cold sweat on my brow
Its noise I cannot bear to hear
Its joy is trouble to my ear
Its ways I cannot bear to see
Its crowds are solitudes to me

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The yellowhammers nest


When shall I see the white-thorn leaves agen

& yellowhammers gathering the dry bents
By the dyke side on stilly moor or fen
Feathered with love & natures good intents
Rude is the tent this architect invents
Rural the place with cart ruts by dyke side
Dead grass horse hair & downy-headed bents
Tied to dead thistles--she doth well provide

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Winding footpath


Wereover many a stile neeth willows grey
The winding footpath leaves the public way
Free from the dusty din & ceasless chime
Of bustling waggons in the summer time
Crossing a brook—were braving storms in vain
Two willows fell & still for brigs remain
Corn field & clover closes leading down
In peacful windings to the neighbouring town

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Yellow woods


The storm from which the shepherd turns 
To pull his beaver down 
While he upon the heath sojourns 
Which autumn bleaches brown 
Is music aye & more indeed 
To those of musing mind 
Who through the yellow woods proceed 
& listen to the wind

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Image by my friend #CarryAkroyd


Bonny March


The bonny March morning is beaming
   In mingled crimson & grey
White clouds are streaking and creaming
   The sky till the noon of the day
The fir deal looks darker and greener
   And grass hills below look the same
The air all about is serener
   The birds less familliar and tame

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Image by my friend #RachelBurch

Kine


Of poesy full many charms are thine
Green vales & tinkling brooks & pastures thronged with kine
& thy old woods as yet can claim & call
Thy native oak thy own that proudly towers
Boast of thy nation & the dread of all
& though the slighting sun & chilly showers
.
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Image by my friend #JohnAbbott

Secluded haunts


Trees sheltering round it hide returning rooks

& twittering swallows seek its chimney nooks
In peace the sparrow chirps its joyous calls
& takes the feather to the crevisd walls
Nor fails the harmless robin & the wren
To seek such sweet secluded haunts agen
Beneath the eaves the martins still repair
& yearly build their mortard dwelling there
.
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Spring


Welcome gentle breathing spring

Now the birds begin to sing
Now the Swelling shade is seen
Putting forth its tender green
While the Suns extended way
Sweetly shows the lengthend day
O delightful Season hail
May my footsteps never fail
When Ive time to trample where
All thy beauties reappear
.
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Childhood


The primrose looks happy in every field

In strange woods the violets their odours will yield
& flowers in the sunshine all brightly arrayed
Will bloom just as fresh & as sweet in the shade
But the wild flowers that bring me most joy & content
Are the blossoms that glow where my childhood was spent
.
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Image by my friend #CarryAkroyd

Clouds


Clouds rack & drive before the wind 

In shapes & forms of every kind 
Like waves that rise without the roars 
& rocks that guard untrodden shores 
Now castles pass majestic bye 
& ships in peaceful havens lie 
These gone ten thousand shapes ensue 
For ever beautiful & new
.
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Chapbooks


Well here they are, ‘Mary Joyce’ to join ‘Patty’ to complete my 30 book John Clare series. I started the series with ‘Drinking with John Clare’ in 2017, so 8 years later we have the completion. My overall aim? Simply to provide inexpensive, but high-quality paperbacks covering the large variety of subjects Clare wrote extensively about. It’s been fun.  The cost? £7 incl (postage now costs £2.65)!  if you are not in the UK I can send you a pdf (Kindle) copy for a donation to a charity of your choice of a similar amount.

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Natures anthem


Sweet the birds did chant their songs
Blackbird linnet lark & thrush
Music from a many tongues
Melted from each dripping bush
Deafend echo on the plain
As the sunbeams broke the cloud
Scarce could help repeat the strain
Natures anthem flowd so loud

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Image by my friend #Carry Akroyd


Rich ecstasy


All in a moment stopt I watched in vain

The timid bird had left the hazel bush
& at a distance hid to sing again
Lost in a wilderness of listening leaves
Rich Ecstasy would pour its luscious strain
Till envy spurred the emulating thrush
To start less wild & scarce inferior songs
For while of half the year care him bereaves
To damp the ardour of his speckled breast
The nightingale to summers life belongs

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Image by my friend #CarryAkroyd

Meet the skies


To gild cares sable shroud
Their spirit through the gloom appears
As suns behind a cloud
Since thou didst meet my infant eyes
As through the fields I flew
Whose distance where they meet the skies
Was all the world I knew

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Image by my grandson #WilburSullivan

Beautiful mortals


Beautiful mortals of the glowing earth
And children of the season crowd together
In showers and sunny weather
Ye beautiful spring hours
Sunshine and all together
I love wild flowers

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A venerable tree


I never pass a venerable tree
Pining away to nothingness & dust
Ruins vain shades of power I never see
Once dedicated to times chea
ting trust
But warm reflection wakes her saddest thought
& views lifes vanity in cheerless light
& sees earths bubbles youth so eager sought
Burst into emptiness of lost delight

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Drooping daffodil


What time the dews unsullied drops
In burnishd gold distil
On crocus flowers unclosing tops
& drooping daffodil
To see thee come all hearts rejoice
& warm with feelings strong
With thee all Nature finds a voice
& hums a waking song

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Lifes lingering debt


Be where I may when death brings in his bill 
Demanding payment for lifes lingering debt 
Or in my native village nestling still 
Or tracing scenes Ive never known as yet 
O let one wish go where I will be mine 
To turn me back & wander home to dye 
Mong nearest friends my latest breath resign 
& in my church yard wi' my kindred lye

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By this bridge


For by this bridge my Mary sat 
& praised the screaming plover 
As first to hail the day—when I 
Confessed myself her lover 
& at that moment stooping down 
I pluckt a daisy blossom 
Which smilingly she called her own 
May garland for her bosom 

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Image by my friend #RachelBurch

The blackbird


The blackbird is a bonny bird
I love his mourning suit
& song in the spring mornings heard
As mellow as the flute
How sweet his song in April showers
Pipes from his golden bill
As yellow as the kingcup flowers
The sweetest ditty still
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Image by my friend #CarryAkroyd

Approach of spring


Dear heart I love to see the quiet spring
Come teaching first the little birds to sing
Then loitering in the sunny field & street
Like people telling stories when they meet
& often pausing in a showers delay
As if she feared some danger in the way
Sending her heralds forward one by one
To try the journey she herself is on
Now starts a daisy then a buttercup
& then a little primrose trembles up
& thus she comes like to a timid maid
Of ruffling winds & dirty roads afraid
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Image by my friend #CarryAkroyd

A tale of spring


A cowslip peep will open faintly coy

Soon seen & gatherd by a wandering boy
A tale of spring around the distant haze
Seems muttering pleasures wi the lengthning days
Morn wakens mottld oft wi may day stains
& shower drops hang the grassy sprouting plains
& on the naked thorns of brassy hue
Drip glistning like a summer dream of dew
While from the hill side freshning forest drops
As one might walk upon their thickening tops
& buds wi young hopes promise seemly swells
Where woodman that in wild seclusion dwells
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Image by my friend #CarryAkroyd


Bonny March


The bonny March morning is beaming 

In mingled crimson and grey
White clouds are streaking and creaming 
The sky till the noon of the day
The fir deal looks darker and greener
And grass hills below look the same
The air all about is serener
The birds less familiar and tame
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Like music


The brook goes winding like a snake

Through many crooks & turns
Loud are the gurgles which it makes
Like music— & then mourns
The thorn leans oer its mimic waves
That oer the pebbles run
The mimic foam in dark place raves
Then crimples in the sun
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