DawnHogarth-Burton - Hello Poetry

Despite the vicious bite and tenacity of grip Icicle fangs of winter are shortening drip by drip Roused by rising sap spring rallies to the fight Stag-horn oaks stab black limbs against the strengthening light A second front of snowdrops huddle in white helmets Bivouacked beneath the blackthorn and clustered in defence And a subtle hue of green is spreading through the moss Where their predecessors fell to the bitter steel of frost.

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Jan 27

Jan 27, 2026 at 1:34 PM UTC

Second Front

Despite the vicious bite and tenacity of grip Icicle fangs of winter are shortening drip by drip Roused by rising sap spring rallies to the fight Stag-horn oaks stab black limbs against the strengthening light A second front of snowdrops huddle in white helmets Bivouacked beneath the blackthorn and clustered in defence And a subtle hue of green is spreading through the moss Where their predecessors fell to the bitter steel of frost.

8

By the hedge there stands a cross To mark an ancient, ****** spot Where today the twittering sparrows Ride the wind that took the arrows Across an icy English sky Over where the thousands lie Rotting down for all these years They mutilated face and ears Hours of hell in That wintry spell in a Field near Towton frozen hard that Became, that day, a butcher's yard Throwing off armour those fleeing were checked By the flooded force of the **** Beck They panicked where the biting snow Was melted to a glistening gore Up the cold steep sided ridge And body-clogged, the beck was bridged Made little dams of deepening red For those who fled ran on the dead.

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Jan 19

Jan 19, 2026 at 11:34 AM UTC

Battlefield

By the hedge there stands a cross To mark an ancient, ****** spot Where today the twittering sparrows Ride the wind that took the arrows Across an icy English sky Over where the thousands lie Rotting down for all these years They mutilated face and ears Hours of hell in That wintry spell in a Field near Towton frozen hard that Became, that day, a butcher's yard Throwing off armour those fleeing were checked By the flooded force of the **** Beck They panicked where the biting snow Was melted to a glistening gore Up the cold steep sided ridge And body-clogged, the beck was bridged Made little dams of deepening red For those who fled ran on the dead.

20

Have you ever seen him leap In twilight as you almost sleep He is the breath of midnight Silky, soft and silent He weaves through the worlds like A fragment of darkness He mated on the earth and begat his little princes Where his paws touch the ground he leaves very little imprint If something like alert as you stir in your rest You might know him by the tiny white patch on his chest And he knows, oh, he knows if you've comforted his kin, If you fed them, if you stroked them, if you took a stray in And may the gods protect you if you invoke his wrath For he is the Cat-Sìth and King of the Cats He is of the Otherworld and he can change his form And sometimes when the veil is thin, around the dusk and dawn He will arch his back and stretch to another shape And in any form he chooses he can leap through time and space For he is the silent hunter, a spirit of the sìth Lord of the feline race, King of the Cats is he.

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Jan 19

Jan 19, 2026 at 11:28 AM UTC

Cat-Sidhe

Have you ever seen him leap In twilight as you almost sleep He is the breath of midnight Silky, soft and silent He weaves through the worlds like A fragment of darkness He mated on the earth and begat his little princes Where his paws touch the ground he leaves very little imprint If something like alert as you stir in your rest You might know him by the tiny white patch on his chest And he knows, oh, he knows if you've comforted his kin, If you fed them, if you stroked them, if you took a stray in And may the gods protect you if you invoke his wrath For he is the Cat-Sìth and King of the Cats He is of the Otherworld and he can change his form And sometimes when the veil is thin, around the dusk and dawn He will arch his back and stretch to another shape And in any form he chooses he can leap through time and space For he is the silent hunter, a spirit of the sìth Lord of the feline race, King of the Cats is he.

20

Crimson sunset is giving warning The earth will have whitened by the morning Spiders have left their path-spanning webs Season teeters on winter's edge Ochre leaves are holding fast Staunch of cause until at last One up in the highest boughs Is buffeted and loses grasp Sudden, sharp burst of hail Foxes gekker and run down the lane Clouds are scudding, sunset flickering Up in the holly a robin is twittering Sounding alarm from the berries bright The first frost of winter is coming tonight.

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Oct 26, 2025

Oct 26, 2025 at 2:02 PM UTC

First Frost of Winter

Crimson sunset is giving warning The earth will have whitened by the morning Spiders have left their path-spanning webs Season teeters on winter's edge Ochre leaves are holding fast Staunch of cause until at last One up in the highest boughs Is buffeted and loses grasp Sudden, sharp burst of hail Foxes gekker and run down the lane Clouds are scudding, sunset flickering Up in the holly a robin is twittering Sounding alarm from the berries bright The first frost of winter is coming tonight.

14

July brought a heavy, hot summer night The roses were fading, the moon was bright Under its light on silent paws A ***** looked about and paused Then turned and slipped back through the yarrow And the night was all hot and fevered and shadowed The sycamores sighed and shivered their leaves Their whispers sang in the summer night's breeze The fruit trees burgeoned, apples and pears A bat wove infinity signs in the air I wasn't dreaming or even asleep When a cold hand touched me through the sheet He paused when he realised I was aware I could feel him watching with intense stare He talked to me by the glow of the moon And I left my body there in the room He took me up and we flew away - We travelled until the break of day The moonlight was white and the lawns were dappled I refuse to say where we went or what happened Beneath the tracery of the clouds Amid the calls of long-eared owls We flew over fields and rivers and hedgerows As mist rolled down the distant meadows Jupiter sparkled and close in the sky Mars and Aldebaran twinkled red eyes The light was fast growing The thistle down blowing His words were full of Wisdom and knowing By the time the sky melted its turquoise to blue I still wasn't certain of who'd summoned who With words in Latin he gave a soft chortle And like a shadow slipped back through a portal He didn't threaten or hurt or hound me And at least he put me back where he found me.

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Jul 29, 2024

Jul 29, 2024 at 2:52 PM UTC

Flight in the Moonlight

July brought a heavy, hot summer night The roses were fading, the moon was bright Under its light on silent paws A ***** looked about and paused Then turned and slipped back through the yarrow And the night was all hot and fevered and shadowed The sycamores sighed and shivered their leaves Their whispers sang in the summer night's breeze The fruit trees burgeoned, apples and pears A bat wove infinity signs in the air I wasn't dreaming or even asleep When a cold hand touched me through the sheet He paused when he realised I was aware I could feel him watching with intense stare He talked to me by the glow of the moon And I left my body there in the room He took me up and we flew away - We travelled until the break of day The moonlight was white and the lawns were dappled I refuse to say where we went or what happened Beneath the tracery of the clouds Amid the calls of long-eared owls We flew over fields and rivers and hedgerows As mist rolled down the distant meadows Jupiter sparkled and close in the sky Mars and Aldebaran twinkled red eyes The light was fast growing The thistle down blowing His words were full of Wisdom and knowing By the time the sky melted its turquoise to blue I still wasn't certain of who'd summoned who With words in Latin he gave a soft chortle And like a shadow slipped back through a portal He didn't threaten or hurt or hound me And at least he put me back where he found me.

36

Good Friday came around Unlucky in the past: A dead dog, a missing cat, Now this year I hear you've passed. First time I saw you, I cried We did not speak The sundogs were burning the Early autumn sky And there was no earthly need - All the dark days of decades past It was all said back then, All learned by rote You wrote in my soul Pulled me through darkness I conjured an image, You played the right notes.

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Apr 9, 2024

Apr 9, 2024 at 9:41 AM UTC

Bad Friday

Good Friday came around Unlucky in the past: A dead dog, a missing cat, Now this year I hear you've passed. First time I saw you, I cried We did not speak The sundogs were burning the Early autumn sky And there was no earthly need - All the dark days of decades past It was all said back then, All learned by rote You wrote in my soul Pulled me through darkness I conjured an image, You played the right notes.

16

Man in black, black fedora Researcher and cave explorer Fact, fiction, myth or real ****** into a darker sphere Consumed by legends, tombs and runes To caverns low and castles high Then snowy mountainside to die I heard the certificate could have been forged As though mission had failed and you were no more I heard a rumour no body was found Or it wasn't you on that wintry ground I heard you were seen after the war - You turned and looked when your name was called And if you did lie down in the snow What knowledge and secrets did you hold? Is your spirit a-quest with wandering? Are you still out there, searching for something?

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Apr 9, 2024

Apr 9, 2024 at 9:39 AM UTC

Fedora Man

Man in black, black fedora Researcher and cave explorer Fact, fiction, myth or real ****** into a darker sphere Consumed by legends, tombs and runes To caverns low and castles high Then snowy mountainside to die I heard the certificate could have been forged As though mission had failed and you were no more I heard a rumour no body was found Or it wasn't you on that wintry ground I heard you were seen after the war - You turned and looked when your name was called And if you did lie down in the snow What knowledge and secrets did you hold? Is your spirit a-quest with wandering? Are you still out there, searching for something?

17

First Sunday in Advent brought Dusting of snow Brief glimpse of sunlight, pallid and low Last blooms of autumn were finally lost In the wisps of the mist and the Harsh bite of frost Male blackbird called softly on shed top Dark silhouette against gloomy sky Had already tonsured the fruit from the bushes His mate jumped and fluttered for that left on the sides Hard ground criss-crossed by bird tracks and cat prints Silence cracked by flat echo of crows Honeysuckle berries, black as mouse eyes Grimly stared at the white world below.

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Dec 3, 2023

Dec 3, 2023 at 7:37 PM UTC

Advent

First Sunday in Advent brought Dusting of snow Brief glimpse of sunlight, pallid and low Last blooms of autumn were finally lost In the wisps of the mist and the Harsh bite of frost Male blackbird called softly on shed top Dark silhouette against gloomy sky Had already tonsured the fruit from the bushes His mate jumped and fluttered for that left on the sides Hard ground criss-crossed by bird tracks and cat prints Silence cracked by flat echo of crows Honeysuckle berries, black as mouse eyes Grimly stared at the white world below.

14

Late July sunlight filters To nest, lights up the lichens Your tiny world will soon expand Beyond your dreams Twiggy horizon a-dance with oak leaves Will become first perch then portal To a vast beyond A plain of patchwork Gridded with dark hedgerows World of barns, stables, cart wheels in clarts Meadows, ditches, many more trees Than the one cradling home Down is flying like thistle seed Wings are stretching, feathers pristine Maybe tomorrow will be the day The late July winds lift you away.

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Jul 29, 2023

Jul 29, 2023 at 3:18 PM UTC

Nestling

Late July sunlight filters To nest, lights up the lichens Your tiny world will soon expand Beyond your dreams Twiggy horizon a-dance with oak leaves Will become first perch then portal To a vast beyond A plain of patchwork Gridded with dark hedgerows World of barns, stables, cart wheels in clarts Meadows, ditches, many more trees Than the one cradling home Down is flying like thistle seed Wings are stretching, feathers pristine Maybe tomorrow will be the day The late July winds lift you away.

16

Strange silence settles Sun almost hidden behind Blue grey cloud Wood pigeons that clattered and Called are poised and mute for The turning, the shortness of night. Duskside, rose petals fall, Confetti of summer Pinning their place on The wheel of the year And the air is thick as thunder While darkness falls, blanket of cloud Mantles the sun and Tucks it under.

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Jul 29, 2023

Jul 29, 2023 at 3:16 PM UTC

Midsummer's Eve

Strange silence settles Sun almost hidden behind Blue grey cloud Wood pigeons that clattered and Called are poised and mute for The turning, the shortness of night. Duskside, rose petals fall, Confetti of summer Pinning their place on The wheel of the year And the air is thick as thunder While darkness falls, blanket of cloud Mantles the sun and Tucks it under.

14