Art: Nightingale by UJJWAL SAGAR
PLACE
When we left, we left it all:
the hazel, the spruce, the Scots pine, the aspen.
When we left we took it all:
the skyscapes and treescapes framing each season.
When we left, we left it all:
the bracken, the cabins, the pathways of water.
When we left we took it all:
the hollows, chill soil, ice-air and snowfall.
When we left, we left it all:
angular boulders with ashy thin grasses.
When we left we took it all:
scent of just-rained-on expanding the stonework.
When we left, we left it all:
pine martens, red deer, herons and osprey.
When we left we took it all:
broadening rain-clouds blending with hillsides.
When we left, we left it all:
short-lived supple islands of shingle.
When we left we took it all:
the bend in the loch we can’t see beyond.
Previously published in London Grip
About the author:
Heidi Williamson is a UK-based poet and creative writing tutor. Her two award-winning Bloodaxe collections are Electric Shadow (2011) and The Print Museum (2016). She works with poets world-wide as a Poetry Surgeon for The Poetry Society, teaches for the Poetry School and mentors writers through The Writing Coach. www.heidiwilliamsonpoet.com
I’m a UK-based poet and creative writing tutor. I work world-wide with poets by Skype for the Poetry Society (UK) and teach for the Poetry School, The Writing Coach and SAW Trust – a charity bringing research science into schools.
My first collection, Electric Shadow (Bloodaxe, 2011) was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and shortlisted for the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry Prize. My second, The Print Museum (Bloodaxe, 2016) won the Book by the Cover Award and the Poetry Category of the East Anglian Book Awards.
Art: Nightingale by UJJWAL SAGAR
In the artist’s words:
I am a student of class XI in The Aryan International School, Varanasi, UP, India – son of an Indian author and Professor of English. Writing is my hobby. I believe good habits for good society – good working for the world full of love, peace, rest, truth and nonviolence. Mahatma Gandhi is my ideal.
A Brief Idea about ‘True Love and Nature’ Some days ago a nightingale had laid three eggs in a nest of a small Christmas plant of my house. Since then the nightingale used to egg her all three eggs. There was no direct presentation of her male partner and he used to visit occasionally. She used to eat flowers of my pomegranate tree in the backyard and some other things. There is a LPG cylinder for the kitchen near the Christmas plant in my house. The maid also goes there to switch on or off the cylinder but she does not escape from there. Others of my family also go but she is not afraid of us. Each year we witness the same. The nightingale hatched the eggs and three children took birth. Now she used to give water from a nearby pond and food from nearby locations. Her male partner also brings and serves food and water to them. They are busy in doing so. There activities show that they have the same love for their children which we human beings have – the sense of service, mercy, compassion, sympathy, trust and love. They had too much trust on us that each year they do the same and we use to enjoy the nest making and their breeding. Aha! Human beings have the same passion. I wish we would have practised the same passion in our life! There would be no bloodshed and violence in the world.
