Four Poems by Mark Andrew Heathcote

 

Real Love is a stone’s ripple 

 

Why do we sometimes hover in isolation from each other?  

What will reconnect us to the sunlight and the water?  

 

I want this intimacy of us and the landscape to rewire me. 

I want this electricity to discharge and recharge my static energy. 

 

All of us are permeating a further and further distant journey. 

Love makes waves in the universe and on every grain of sand.  

 

Why is the heart racing one way and then another?  

Real love is a stone ripple, resonating and sinking ever deeper. 

 

In linear sediment, ours is a steppingstone river. 

With geological layers stacked one on top of another. 

 

 

 

 

Blackbird lover 

 

Blackbird lover, wing me on down to your thorny crown. 

Let us build our kingdom on a holly sprig. 

And sing. Blackbird lover, your feathers are very -strong. 

Blackbird lover I peck in the dirt. 

But you bring me gifts, as only lovers do. 

Blackbird lover, you know how to reach my heart. 

Blackbird lover, has it ever crossed your mind?  

I'll eat earthworms for you. 

Blackbird lover, has it ever crossed your mind?  

I'll sit on a bough, bowing back and forth in the wind 

To hear you sing my name 

Blackbird lover, has it ever crossed your mind?  

We are birds of a feather, and I couldn't wait for any other. 

Blackbird lover, you are meant for me, and I am meant for you. 

Blackbird lover fold me in your wings and fly me home. 

I no longer want to nest alone. 

 

 

 

 

Spiral in the snow

 

 

Let's go, let's go—spiral in the snow. 

Follow the valley and transcend what has gone. 

Falling in waves, let us cover the world. 

Coat it with our devotion. 

And imagine how the destruction will melt away. 

And all will be restored anew. 

Let's break the chain and open our minds. 

Let's go, let's go—spiral in the snow. 

Envision purity once again. 

A world unsullied and frozen but alive 

Breathing with every fresh, icy breath 

Visualise crystal water that revives 

Picture a future that cherishes creation. 

Oh, let's go, let's go—spiral in the snow. 

Childlike, let's discover all that has gone. 

Wanting to be whole; wanting once more to live again. 

 

 

 

 

The finest thread

 

 

The finest thread needs a needle. 

You can't thread yourself without help. 

It doesn't matter how steady your hand is 

or how keen your eyes see 

it takes a heart with a pure soul. 

That never trembles, not one breath. 

And it leaves nothing to fate. 

  

It's like a nightingale singing in the dead of night. 

Knowing soon her song will reach her forest mate. 

And all the stars in heaven will be sewn. 

In an embroidery of sparkling dreams,  

a tapestry here never dreamed of too late. 

'Wherever Romeo goes, he always joins his Juliet.'

  

 

Mark Andrew Heathcote is an adult learning difficulties support worker. He has poems published in journals, magazines, and anthologies online and in print. He resides in the UK and is from Manchester. Mark is the author of “In Perpetuity” and “Back on Earth,” two books of poems published by Creative Talents Unleashed.