South Downs by Pratibha Castle

 


 

Pratibha Castle’s prize-winning poetry pamphlet A Triptych of Birds and A Few Loose Feathers is being published later in 2020 by Hedgehog Press. Her poetry appears in various journals, anthologies and online magazines, including Indigo Press publications Sarasvati and Reach. Pratibha, born in Dun Laoghaire, now resident in W. Sussex, began writing poetry on her mother’s death in 2007. She graduated from Chichester University with a first class honours degree aged 61 and continued to explore writing on their Creative Writing MA. She is currently working on her second poetry pamphlet.

 


 

 

             

             

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

 

 

 

 

Wolf sense idles me

into a random field 

where sheep 

take a brief break 

from munching grass 

to glance my way. 

A black face dam fixes me

with Satan gaze, transmits a cipher 

I likely misconstrue, watches

as I mount the stile, swing my leg across 

as if the worn wood is the saddle 

of an imaginary mare set 

to canter me off 

into a fae mist

distance. 

 

Beyond the field 

a path through the woods 

petals open into a copse, incense 

of wild thyme, garlic 

blooming beneath

my feet. 

 

Wild clematis 

tosses into a breeze 

wafting the fantasy 

of a cuckoo. 

 

Dryads lean in, anoint 

me with whispered 

prayers. 

I drift in wonder at a tail feather 

amongst the leaves 

from the red kite

keening in the blue, flash  

above the brook

of turquoise, shadow 

splash of a heron. 

 

Pratibha Castle

 

 

Pumpkin Blues by Pratibha Castle

Gilbert White

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