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Words for the Wild

Poetry and short fiction rooted in our countryside

Fruit

  Fruit poems and stories     scroll down to read poems and stories in our[…]

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Jungle

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Streams

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  • Home
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  • Poetry 2025
    • A Small Village in Suffolk by Joseph Long
    • Cat Man of Kafr Nabl by Lizzie Ballagher
    • Nothing Has Changed by Kate Young
    • PHOTO OF A HOWITZER FIRING IN UKRAINE by Glenn Hubbard
  • Stories
    • Monsters Within by Alan McCormick – Art by Jonny Voss
    • Wild Life by Rachel Beresford-Davies
    • The Screaming Tree by Kate Chandler
    • Collection of Bones: The Whistling Cages by Iris Hanson
    • Seeking Renewal by Ian Huckson
    • The Star Shaped Scar by Alan McCormick
    • Valhalla by Max Dunbar
    • Of Fur Not Fowl (Or, How Not to Catch a Tiger) by Jeanine Pfeiffer
    • A Jungle Out There by Steve Carr
    • In the Lake District by Charlie Hill
    • Satsuma by Rachel Beresford-Davies
    • Apples by Maeve Bruce
    • Last in Line by Mangal Patel
    • Strawberry Girl by Allen Ashley
    • Seasonal Adjustment Order by S.A. Leavesley
    • I am a Rock by Alan McCormick
    • Reasons to Swim Inside the Sky by Alan McCormick
    • Baker, Emily and Me by Claire Fuller
    • Heading North by Stephanie Shields
    • The Girl in the Valley by Maggie Freeman
    • Old Men and the Sea by Barbara Lovric
    • Cheesefoot Head by Judith Heneghan
    • Just an old grey Volkswagen by Sandra Arnold
    • Feral by Alan McCormick
    • Wish You Were Here by Alan McCormick
    • Waving in the Wind by Deborah Freeman
    • Lucky for Some by Rob Walton
    • A Point to it All by John Herbert
    • Milk by Rachael McGill
    • A Declaration by Mark Rutterford
    • In the Lap of the Gods by Susmita Bhattacharya
    • A new Purana by Victoria Bird
    • Tree Man by Amanda Saint
    • The Meadow by Elizabeth Baines
    • New Town by Calum Kerr
    • South Downs by Claire Fuller
  • Poems
    • Half-Dreams of Siren Songs by Johnathan Reid
    • Just a cup by Joan McGavin
    • Ascending Mullach Mor by Claire Booker
    • Messages by Robyn Bolam
    • Ghazal: Fire by Sue Spiers
    • Forest Culture by Lesley Cooke
    • Planet Zero by Kate Young
    • June Gap by Rachel Bower
    • Lament for a Lost Hare by Hilary Hares
    • Flamingo – We Interview Kathryn Bevis
    • Two Poems by Lydia Fulleylove
    • A Breath of Fresh Air by Robyn Bolam
    • At the bear sanctuary by Claire Booker
    • Two Poems by Kevin Cahill
    • Aground by Ronnie Smith
    • The Snowy Owl’s Screech by Josie Mahmood
    • A Field Guide for Young Naturalists by Patrick B. Osada
    • Le Touquet Conundrum by Alun Robert
    • Under Silver How by Sarah Doyle
    • Marsh Running by Richard Williams
    • Gilbert’s Garden by Kathy Finney
    • Swallowing the Toad by Matthew Paul
    • Lockdown by Sue Mackrell
    • Bowing to the Water by Maggie Mackay
    • Before the rockslide, 1982 by Maxine Rose Munro
    • City Dwellers by Charlotte Fong
    • No-show by David Ashbee
    • We understand, Gilbert White and I, while in Selborne architecting by Marcelle Newbold
    • The Hawthorn by Suzanne Iuppa
    • Walking with Gilbert White by Barbara Cumbers
    • Learning Their Language by Sharon Phillips
    • Feeling Winter/Becoming Spring by John Lanyon
    • A New Superstore by Guy Russell
    • THREE CLIMATIC WORKS: Words by Alan McCormick – Pictures by Jonny Voss
    • Breaking the surface by Jackie Biggs
    • Developments by Colin Bancroft
    • Lost River by Rosemary Appleton
    • Defaunation of Character by Sarah Beauclerk
    • The Curlew by Irene Watson
    • This Was My Tomato Patch by Alun Robert
    • Goldfinch in Holly by Lizzie Ballagher
    • You Mistake Yourself for an Allotment by Chrissie Gittins
    • Late Blooms by Lisa Kelly
    • Climate migrant by Juliet Fossey
    • Shades of Summer by Kate Young
    • Not Yet by Lisa Creech Bledsoe
    • The Tern Warden’s beach-hut by Paul Green
    • Hoverfly Observing by Steve Xerri
    • A New Build on an Old Lot by Ruth Sabath Rosenthal
    • Flitting Days by Daphne Astor
    • Thirteen Ways of Looking At Stone by Sue Burge
    • Starlings by Jane Lovell
    • Beyond the Window by Glenn Hubbard
    • Upcycling by Andrew Howdle
    • The Village Girl by Xiaoly Li
    • High Speed 2 Limited by Duncan Forbes
    • Gills by Hugh Greasley
    • Flight of the Enchanter by Sue Davies
    • Daphnoid by Joan McGavin
    • A Prospect of Beech Trees by Stephen Boyce
    • Two Metres Away by Angela Ward
    • H2O by Isabel Rogers
    • Touched by Jenny McRobert
    • Notebook by Lynda O’Neill
    • A Wedding by Kathryn Bevis
    • Volume 5 by Richard Stillman
    • Brockenhurst – Out Into Space by Lesley Cooke
    • Gatherings by Steve Scholey
    • Sparrow Haiku by Sue Spiers
    • A Letter to Gilbert White by Robyn Bolam
    • More than ‘structurally unsafe’ by S.A. Leavesley
    • Wintering by Brian Johnstone
    • The Village Show by Paul Stephenson
    • True Builders by Lizzie Ballagher
    • four hares by Sheila Lockhart
    • Three Poems about Houses by José Emilio Pacheco translated by Cynthia Steele
    • Windthrow by Zoe Karathanasi
    • Map by Peter Burrows
    • The Frog by Matthew James Friday
    • By Churchgate Station, 22 August 1997, Mumbai by Susmita Bhattacharya
    • Dandelion by Cheryl Pearson
    • Siren by Mark Totterdell
    • Mots by Rebecca Gethin
    • 19 Paths Through Rectory Wood by Jean Atkin
    • Buildwas by Cherry Doyle
    • The Dreamworld Drips with Reality by Jane R Rogers
    • Helvetia by Christopher Hopkins
    • Echoes by Andrew Howdle
    • Five Haiku, Illustrated by Caro Reeves
    • South Downs by Pratibha Castle
    • Binary by Ian Huckson
    • Cinnabar Moth by Mary Robinson
    • Still Life with Feathers by Patrick B. Osada
    • A Vision by Kathryn Bevis
    • A nightingale for Gilbert White by Jo Bell
    • The Naturalist’s Summer Evening Walk by Gilbert White
    • Unsettled by Robyn Bolam
    • they lit fires, moved in close by Raine Geoghegan
    • We Won’t Say Too Much About The Hats by Buffy Shutt
    • New Arrival by Claire Booker
    • Unwanted by Allen Ashley
    • Pondskater by Christina Buckton
    • The Gift by Gordon Peters
    • Dark Feast by Martina Reisz Newberry
    • Owlswood Park by Patrick B. Osada
    • Your shadow at morning by Kathryn Anna Marshall
    • One for the Road by Peter Burrows
    • War Paint by Chris Hardy
    • Cleeve Hill by Zoe Brooks
    • Sea gift by Harriet Jae
    • Nesting by Keith Tucker
    • I should be howling by Janet Philo
    • My Giant Bladderstone by Steven Luria Ablon
    • A Better Berry by Duncan Forbes
    • Lacerations by Gary Beck
    • Evening Class by Sheila Saunders
    • Nectarines! It’s a Heckuva Fruit! by Diana Rosen
    • Bougainvillea by Harry Owen
    • On Slicing a Quince by Steve Xerri
    • No Ordinary Apothecary by Kate Young
    • Forest Poems by Mel Parks
    • ‘City Foxes’ and ‘She Waits’ by Annest Gwilym
    • LEBANESE FOOD CENTRE, ACTON, NOVEMBER by John Lanyon
    • Time after time the same bird is born from the flame by Anna Saunders
    • Tide Clock by Hugh Greasley
    • Blackcurrants by Lizzie Ballagher
    • Taste of Childhood by Shanta Acharya
    • Pole Star by Kate Firth
    • I, Elder, Animal by Alison Lock
    • The Gift Girl by Michael H. Brownstein
    • Jam Tomorrow by Eileen Farrelly
    • Before the First Bite by Stephanie Stanton
    • Aurelia aurita by Jackie Biggs
    • Moules en Provence by Diane Mulholland
    • Skirt by Dorothy Burrows
    • Along the Road by Alison Brackenbury
    • Drawing #1 by MD Kerr
    • Northeast Corner by Gerard Sarnat
    • By the River Dwyfor by Alison Lock
    • Coots by Kim Ridgeon
    • Song of Praise by Shanta Acharya
    • Jazz Fox by Jo Young
    • Bringing in the Shrimps by Kerry Darbishire
    • A Fruit Basket by Jo Brandon
    • Still the Apple by S.A. Leavesley
    • Pumpkin Blues by Pratibha Castle
    • daily dose by Hilaire
    • Postcard from the Beara Peninsula by Kate Firth
    • wild strawberries by Lisa Reily
    • Three Poems by Peter Burrows
    • The overgrown path by John Davies
    • Fieldfares by Lizzie Ballagher
    • Possession by Shanta Acharya
    • Devil Day by Kathryn Bevis
    • A Winter Gift by Kerry Darbishire
    • The Whit-Horn is Calling by John Lanyon
    • Our Own Turf by Sue Millard
    • Wellington Square by Alison Brackenbury
    • Polar by Geraldine Green
    • Medlars by Stephen Bone
    • Fruit in the 60s by Glenn Hubbard
    • Greatfather Oak by David Batteiger
    • sweet lemons by Lisa Reily
    • Ladybird by Z. D. Dicks
    • Homecoming by Sue Millard
    • Instructions for Fallow Times by Hilaire
    • Siesta at the botanical gardens by Mandy Macdonald
    • Flash by Alison Brackenbury
    • Gathering Mushrooms by Lesley Quayle
    • Stained Glass, Cartmel Priory by Geraldine Green
    • What I found at the bottom by L. Kiew
    • Fruity Competition by Kate Firth
    • Roadside Deer by Elaine Baker
    • Undertones by Alun Robert
    • Zone by Sue Burge
    • Leaf Spirit by Angela Ward
    • Greek Sunset by Lisa Reily
    • specifications for an orchard by Hilaire
    • The Fall by Jo Brandon
    • The Wood by Peter Burrows
    • ’75 by Alison Brackenbury
    • Biophilia by Jane Lovell
    • The Gift by Matt Barnard
    • Host by Sarah Mnatzaganian
    • Fall by Lesley Quayle
    • At the Meeting Place by Geraldine Green
    • Rattus Rattus by Kathryn Anna Marshall
    • Via-Vulpes by Sarah Doyle
    • My America by Mandy Macdonald
    • Crumbs from the table by Finola Scott
    • Strange Spring by Kate Firth
    • No Return To Varoşa by Alun Robert
    • The Help by Elaine Baker
    • The girl who can talk to birds by Finola Scott
    • Kujjai by Rebecca Gethin
    • The Teatime Tarzan by Allen Ashley
    • The Disappearing River, Stream, Trickle by S. A. Leavesley
    • The Yew Speaks On St Brigid’s Day by Kate Firth
    • Breath Unspools by L. Kiew
    • Elements by Rebecca Parker
    • between the start of the pipit’s peep by Phil Barnett
    • Ode to a Giant Waterlily by Stephen Bone
    • Otter’s Back by Christopher Hopkins
    • City Gull by Sarah Doyle
    • Crackington Haven on New Year’s Eve by Kate Firth
    • Nightlife by Stella Wulf
    • The Jungle Rises by Jeff Schiff
    • After Roger Deakin by Alun Robert
    • Calla Lilies by Heidi Morrell
    • Letters from Home by Kerry Darbishire
    • Three Poems by Sharon Phillips
    • Sognefjord by Maggie Butt
    • Listen to the river by Christopher Hopkins
    • Stream by Susan Taylor
    • In the Siberian taiga by Rebecca Gethin
    • Carnlough Bay by Rosie Johnston
    • The Crab and the Gull by Diane Mulholland
    • Recollecting Water by Mary Robinson
    • A Stream in the Woods by Andrew Cochrane
    • Beck Moss by Kerry Darbishire
    • When the Dark Rain Blew Away Our Home by Michael H. Brownstein
    • On the Towpath by Anthony Watts
    • Beneath All This by Kim Ridgeon
    • Reflections, Upwey by Sharon Phillips
    • Winding through Elk Rock Garden by Diane Averill
    • No Waters More Clear by Susan Taylor
    • A Sky-Wide Russet Flock Ascending by L. Ward Abel
    • Spring by Peter Burrows
    • Nature’s Healing of Neuroses by William Ruleman
    • Sea shanty for a ship in a bottle by Jenny McRobert
    • Wild Strawberries by Kevin Casey
    • Norwegian Wood by Maggie Butt
    • Mayfly Rising by Sarah Westcott
    • Ikebana – Freestyle by Helen McNaughton
    • Four Mornings by Lesley Quayle
    • Sweeping the Sands by Peter Burrows
    • The Drought by Carol Krauss
    • The overripe apple drops by Diane Averill
    • Stars in pocket by Christopher Hopkins
    • such a pretty picture by Paul Robert Mullen
    • Droplets by Sue Spiers
    • birds knit my ribs together by Phil Barnett
    • Seasalter – March 2019 by Rosie Johnston
    • Cloudburst by Kerry Darbishire
    • Lone Tree on Abandoned Pier by Jeffrey Yamaguchi
    • I was paddling by Jeff Schiff
    • Degrees of Twilight by Maggie Butt
    • Song of the Naiad by Ide Crawford
    • Overlooked by Rebecca Gethin
    • Down here… by Don Thompson
    • A Tree is Breathing by Jane Desmond
    • Unheard in the Woods by Rodney Nelson
    • Filthy Little Stream by Sarah Westcott
    • Wildflower Reunion by R. Gerry Fabian
    • To a Felled Tree by Karen Wolf
    • Convict Weather by Kevin Casey
    • Dragonfly by Jenny McRobert
    • Notes from the Black Walnut Kingdom by Jeff Schiff
    • Maiden Castle by Kathryn Anna Marshall
    • somewhere in the countryside by Paul Robert Mullen
    • Oak by Maggie Butt
    • Petworth by Leanne Coombes
    • Frog by Mark Totterdell
    • In Praise of Hedges by Kerry Darbishire
    • Three Poems by Hiram Larew
    • Sycamore Gap by Zoe Mitchell
    • Copsing by Yuan Changming
    • Walking with the Wagons by Raine Geoghegan
    • Wisht by Julie Hogg
    • Estuary Heaven by Stephen Mead
    • East Stratton by Georgia Hilton
    • The Flight of Time by Lesley Cooke
    • Dark Winter Skies by Andy Allan
    • Cellar Dweller by Duncan Forbes
    • The Day I Left Chicago by Michael H. Brownstein
    • January Light by Imogen Forster
    • A dendrological reaction to National Socialism by Ben Ray
    • Tower Shell by Hannah Brockbank
    • Bleak Row by Laura Potts
    • Feather and Shell by Steve Xerri
    • Ousel-Cock by Glenn Hubbard
    • The Mandarin Duck by Matthew James Friday
    • Crabbing by J. J. Shale
    • At a year’s turn by Linda Goulden
    • Lady of the Garden by Laura Potts
    • INVASIVE SPECIES/ NURTURE [HUMAN] NATURE by Gerard Sarnat
    • Callipepla california by Stefano Bortolussi
    • Desert by Louise Wilford
    • Corvid Haibun by Elisabeth Sennitt Clough
    • Wintering by Sarah Doyle
    • Flying south by Isabel Rogers
    • She was History by Clare Read
    • Four Poems by Elizabeth Spencer Spragins
    • Mallard by Ion Corcos
    • Brown Dwarf Star by Deborah Harvey
    • It’s a Flower on Chalk by Angela Ward
    • Ensemble by S.A. Leavesley
    • In the gloaming by Ceinwen E. Cariad Haydon
    • saturnalia by Paul Summers
    • A charm by Rebecca Gethin
    • Wildflo Wers by Allen Ashley
    • nanna’s garden by Lisa Reily
    • Cavity by Roger Bloor
    • West by Sharon Phillips
    • Villanelle for 1976 by Isabel Ashdown
    • YaYa by Robert Hughes
    • Rooks’ Flight by Alyson Faye
    • Beside the Grave of Abram Wood by Frances Roberts Reilly
    • Wild Things Arrest Me by Jake Aller
    • The Trees by Kevin Barrett
    • Walk to Wardour Castle Lake with Stevie Smith by Helen Whitten
    • In the wild by Donna Kirstein
    • A Plea for the Salton Sea by Kimmy Alan
    • The Great Banded Grayling Emerges in September by Glenn Hubbard
    • ONNELLISUUS ON AIKA HIIHDELLÄ KOIRASI SIVULLA LUONNOSSA by Steve Scholey
    • Climate Change by Ibrahim Salihu
    • Inter-City Fox by Wendy Dishman
    • Persephone Tastes the Earth by Ali Jones
    • Urban Spring by Lynda O’Neill
    • Enveloped by Joan McNerney
    • Cheesewring by Serena Trowbridge
    • Quilt me a blanket by Selma Carvalho
    • The Glosters Return by Patrick Williamson
    • Beach Walk by Sue Johnson
    • Gull Tide by Anne Sherry
    • Marlborough Downs by Michael Spring
    • The Downs at Dusk by Kenneth Spring
    • Seven Sisters by David Webb
    • The Picnic by Alison Lock
    • The clearing by Stewart Carswell
    • Ansel’s Winter on the Merced River by Ruth E. Walker
    • Cows by Mandy Huggins
    • Murmuration by Gill Horitz
    • kingf isher just by Mark Goodwin
    • A line of Oaks by Samantha Jayasuriya
    • Fielding by Patsy Rath
    • aspiration by MC Thompson
    • Rain Started High by Joan McGavin
    • Coppicing by Ilse Pedler
    • If Bees Could Talk by Sally Russell
    • A Memory of the Hop Fields by Raine Geoghegan
    • Caged by Stephen Boyce
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