Four Poems by Kevin Cowdall

 

 

The Potent Patchouli 

 

 

It is the enticing essence of my teens. 

An evocative reminder of halcyon times, 

redolent of girls and music and laughter. 

 

A distinctive, invasive fragrance, 

lingering on the air for a moment in passing, 

an earthy trigger to set the senses on edge. 

 

An intoxicating, sensual aphrodisiac,  

provocative and alluring, even now, 

as memories swirl, one over another. 

 

Such is the potency of patchouli.

 

 

 

The Feral Crow 

 

 

The glassy eyes 

of a feral crow, 

a smudge of soot 

against the snow, 

stared back at me 

across the field, 

unblinkingly. 

It did not yield  

and held my gaze 

for quite the while; 

tilting its head 

as to beguile  

in time-bound ways, 

intrinsically. 

Then, taking wing,  

it rose on high, 

a tiny speck 

against the sky;  

and so was gone 

the feral crow, 

capriciously. 

 

The Lingering Jasmine

I sit contentedly at a table on

the otherwise empty veranda;

enjoying the growing warmth

of the early-morning sun on

my face and taking in the aroma

of my freshly-made coffee.

But there is a stronger scent

drifting on that balmy air;

the compelling fragrance of

the nodding white blossoms

on trellises all around me.

After a while, with the sun

sitting higher and pushing

back cooling shadows, I rise

with a long, satisfying stretch.

Reluctantly, I move indoors –

and am followed in my wake by

the lingering remembrance of jasmine.

 

 

The Foraging Badger 

 

 

Sleeping.  

 

Huddled deep within their burrow, 

a sleeping clan of sheltering badgers,  

living secret lives in the woodland depths. 

 

Stirring. 

 

Instinctively waking when darkness falls. 

Stirring, stretching, cautiously testing the air 

for the slightest hint of potential danger. 

 

Emerging. 

 

Warily peering into the blackness  

before exploring every nook and cranny, 

haunting shadows in the moonlight.  

 

Foraging.  

 

Rooting for worms, fallen eggs, and rodents 

scurrying beneath the roots and flora, 

then returning to their den at dawn’s first hint.  

 

Sated. 

 

Kevin Cowdall was born in Liverpool, England, where he still lives and works. In all, over 200 of Kevin’s poems have been published in journals, magazines, and anthologies, and on web sites, in the UK and Ireland, across Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, India, Canada, and the USA, and broadcast on BBC Radio and RTÉ Radio, Ireland. 

His 2016 retrospective collection, Assorted Bric-à-brac brought together the best from three previous collections (The Reflective Image, Monochrome Leaves, and A Walk in the Park) with a selection of newer poems). His most recent collection, Natural Inclinations, features fifty poems with a common theme of the natural world. 

His poem for children, The Land of Dreams, was published on the Letterpress Project website, wonderfully illustrated by Chris Riddell, and is available on YouTube. 

Kevin is also the author of three novels, The Dinsdale Fox (contemporary tale of childhood), The Ghost in the Room (contemporary crime thriller), and Cosgrove’s Sketches (the story of an Edwardian Liverpool artist), a novella, Paper Gods and Iron Men (WWII desert survival), a short story collection, The Ophelia Garden, and a play, Sometimes . . .