Heathland to Coastline | The Island Beyond | Seeking | The Poetry Evening | In A Desert Place | The Last Boundary | Eucalyptus Wood | Quest | Riding Home
I walk  the path beside the gorse and shrub, beyond
the  heather draped like purple cloths against the green,
the  green, most green of fern fronds in their last
viridien  leafing, defying  fading summer and the touch
of  cooling Autumn, turning them to roan.
I think  of you, walking some sea wrapt bay,
striding  a high cliff top, the beach beneath,
with  rocks repelling breakers foaming white.
My path  turns, here the rose bay willow herb
with  flowers of Madder Pink stands tall above
the  meadow fescue and the feather grass,
with  thistle heads like amethysts between.
I see,  with your far distant, gazing eyes
the  soaring waves leaping at blackened stone,
the  marram grass and silver hollowed dunes,
the  light receding on a far horizon.
I feel  the sun dried pebbles as you walk,
the  breaking shells you crush beneath your feet.
I hear  the surge and swell of waves and wind,
I smell  the sea wrack cast upon the shore
and  taste the salt spray flung upon the air.
And you,  lost in your sea-side fantasy,
can I  believe that through my eyes you see
the  beech, the birch, the ash trees sway,
the  green, the gold, the purples and the pinks,
the leaf  mast and the sandstone path?
And do  you hear the susurrating leaves?
do you  feel fronds of bracken on your face,
are  scents of purple ling assailing you,
the  taste of stuporous pollen in the air?
Are you  as close to me, on your far distant coast,
as I am  close to you, in heathland and green shade?