Phil Carradice

St. Athan, UK

 

 

Phil Carradice is a poet, novelist and historian who comes from pembrokeshire but lives now in St Athan. He has published over 60 books, the most recent being 'Following in the Footsteps of Henry Tudor' for Pen and Sword. and broadcasts regularly on radio and TV. He hosts the BBC Wales history programme The Past Master. He says that this poem is about the death of his wife, three years ago, but was written during this pandemic which seems to have freed up his poetic drive after an absence of two to three years.

 

Date finished 30 April 2020

 

Anything to Know

 

Here, at the corner of the field,

where farmers' tractors will not go,

the grass is long, tufts tumbling together

like hair on an unkempt head.

 

Beyond this triangle

of sun-groomed isolation sweeps of corn

run and rise to the horizon.

 

This is where the hares and rabbits hide,

their antler-ears appearing

briefly, dangerously

above the corn stooks,

then dropping back into the darkness.

 

Sanctuary - for a while at least.

Except that memories keep re-appearing.

Just now they hover like a raft of ghosts

above the corn field, around this

No-Mans-Land of wild, unwanted waste.

 

And all the while the flowers that you loved,

those blues and reds and yellows

glimmer in the grass.

I only hope that you are safe,

content and free at last from pain.

 

My trouble is I do not know.

I would give anything to know.