Jul 2019
AFTER LONDON
The silence deepens.
As if it were a living being
it forages in the forest.
The next step taken
takes me out of the present
into history
into fantasy
as if I have become
a fairy story.
Tropes trooping through
the clearing.
The huff and puff
of a bad wind rising.
The silence broken.
Inside the belly
of the forest
where green is
the only colour seen
lies a partly
digested house.
Vines snaking through
its empty windows.
Its roof thrown
upon its floor.
Its wall crumbling
back into nature.
I sit and read my
Richard Jefferies.
A finger of frond
reading along with me
eager to turn
the next page.
The silence
deepens.
The silence deepens.
As if it were a living being
it forages in the forest.
The next step taken
takes me out of the present
into history
into fantasy
as if I have become
a fairy story.
Tropes trooping through
the clearing.
The huff and puff
of a bad wind rising.
The silence broken.
Inside the belly
of the forest
where green is
the only colour seen
lies a partly
digested house.
Vines snaking through
its empty windows.
Its roof thrown
upon its floor.
Its wall crumbling
back into nature.
I sit and read my
Richard Jefferies.
A finger of frond
reading along with me
eager to turn
the next page.
The silence
deepens.
Richard Jeffeeries...he of the beautiful nature writing that influenced the nature writing of poet Edward Thomas.
Jefferies's novel, After London (1885), can be seen as an early example of "post-apocalyptic fiction": after some sudden and unspecified catastrophe has depopulated England, the countryside reverts to nature, and the few survivors to a quasi-medieval way of life.
The house gone to ruin that nature takes back is my memory of numerous houses I have come across including even one on the island of Lampedusa
Jefferies's novel, After London (1885), can be seen as an early example of "post-apocalyptic fiction": after some sudden and unspecified catastrophe has depopulated England, the countryside reverts to nature, and the few survivors to a quasi-medieval way of life.
The house gone to ruin that nature takes back is my memory of numerous houses I have come across including even one on the island of Lampedusa
