The image used for the poem “Rotate” was captured at Danbury Lakes in October 2018. The autumn colours are just starting to turn and this lake is calm enough to provide nice reflections. Without the grasses on the left and the tree leaves on the right you might well be able to rotate the image!
Rotate
When lake calm span, drape dome clear blue,
a silvered mirror shapes our view,
so image screened, turned upside down,
still crowned with clarity, the leaves.
But real has scale behind the trunk;
lake superficial, depth beneath.
So can we differentiate,
presented autumn trees on turn?
That rarer peace, manipulate,
think lateral, rotate the piece,
the heron gangly, underneath,
a diving guillemot at sea.
Upset the dipper in its leap,
with courtesy, confuse the snipe,
the wader headfirst in the sand,
an ostrich on its treetop flight.
Does turnstone plummet from the heights
is knot unravelled, stringing worms,
does lapwing know his circuit flap
call curlew gargle, bubble fall?
When wealth is valued by gold weight,
and not grown wisdom of its youth,
warlords disdain the starving child,
would I not seek world upside down?
© Stephen Kingsnorth 2020