A dark green shadow cements
A soft green streak
To the casuarina and a white fence
That keep company with a creek.
Home to a feathered menagerie
Let loose to wing and wade
They colour-in the canopy
From crimson through to jade.
A blue wren flits nervously
In the absence of its mate,
A kingfisher sits furtively
Pleasured by its wait.
. There’s more to this than space and time,
. It’s the colour gives it rhyme.

© Tim Grace, 24 September 2010

To the reader: Waiting in space and time, keeping company with self, watching a menagerie of birds occupy a green dell; a copse of sorts. The image is pleasant, but there’s an underlying tension, as the verdant space is in constant dispute. The nervous twitch of a wren, the furtive posturing of a kingfisher, all signs of trouble in paradise. Unresolved shadows steal the certainty of green.

To the poet: Descriptive poetry relies on a strong visual scaffold. There needs to be a solid structure from which the scene can emerge as worthy of note. In this sonnet, the childhood memory of colouring-in washes over the text with a thin pallet of greens, blues and a white fence to both divide and contrast the scenery. The mix of colour and message gives the poem a satisfying tonal blend of imagery.

coloured rhyme