Not just one linnet. But 2 linnets. On Dawlish Warren.
Ivor Cutlers girlfriend Phyllis King wrote a little poem about a linnet.
A Linnet
Sky fragile as ancient porcelain
Slender a pale bird on a bramble
Still as evening air
A linnet I breathe
Knowing only the sparrow by sight
What bird so perfect
Could have another name?
Phyllis King
(From the Ivor Cutler album- Jammy Smears)
We made a little vid about this Linnet poem on our other blog 3 years ago.
Vid: Ian Nisbet
Sketch & Calligraphy: Hazel Brown; Poem: Robert Browning
Storm House
It stands alone in wind and weather
Hard fast against the roaring storm
Hard edged through winter’s gales
It dreams of ancestors long gone
Who warmed those ancient walls
Kept dry with hearthstone fires
Through snowstorm, hailstone,
Winter bleak-light. Dimpsy half light,
‘Til sun turns round the year light
When sap snaps the icy fronds
Then buds do burst break through
The closed up dusty window panes
And summer paints those walls and doors
In yellows, greens, of flowerbed hues.
Painting and poem by Hazel Brown
I’m Hetty the Hanger On
Strung up here
Willing dinner to come
Held from suspended state
In interminable wait
I’m Hetty the Hanger On
As you can see (or can’t see) I’m quite tiny
Sat anywhere but here
You wouldn’t find me
I’m Hetty the Hanger On
Ultra neat and impeccably tidy
Whiling my hours away rather slyly
Hung from the end of my tether
I can hold this pause
For as long, well, as long as whenever
Coz I’m Hetty the Hanger On
My forbearance stretches
Out for forever
I stay silent, imperturbably still
My movement is perfectly nil
I’m Hetty the Hanger On
My will to restrain
From this doors window pain
Is an agonized slow motioned thrill
I revel in monotonous glum
I love to play dead and act dumb
I never feel tedious bored
For with web tightly spun
My trapdoor is sprung
I’m Hetty the Hanger On
I exist to entangle entwine
My patience effortless, sublime
Applying iotas of pressure
For unpleasant pleasure
I’m Hetty the Hanger On
A killjoy suppressor
From minute morsels I dine
I’m Hetty the Hanger On
I negate endeavour
I negative time
My motive malign
For crawly creep crime
With endurance exemplary
I intense intentionally
An alarming arachnid
Pulling strings as expected
Mites must succumb my way eventually
All my window pain worth it
For I’m Hetty the Hanger On
And I’m having such
Ad infinitums of fun!
Poem & Pictures: Ian Nisbet
Where BE we?
We not BE in Devon
Too flat.
Devon all green bumps of burps.
When BE we?
BE bout now
When this is OK
A Winter insert.
How BE we?
We BE quite inert.
Squintin thro lines that lurk.
Who BE we?
We BE up this tree
Undisturbed
Quiet and unheard.
Too hidden for words.
Two tired little birds.
Drawing: Hazel Brown; Words: Ian Nisbet.
Blown and Blustered!
Gusted and Fustered
With temperamental Fluster!
It has whined and its howled
Like tormented Fowls!
Whipped up the trees, shaken their leaves
And Dizzeyed the Bees!
The birds have all flown to a much safer home!
Waves crash and smash on the
Old Harbour walls.
Ships strain their ropes, whilst the
Fishermen’s hopes of taking out boats
Are all dashed and postponed…..’til…..
Old Brian is spent and these storms are soon rent
And Autumn’s warm Sun is content.
– Poem & Words: Hazel Brown
The Blackbird, the Dunnock and the little Blackcap
All share the green lawn out in the back
Garden with stonewalls, bushes and bluebells,
Jasmine, Camelias , with bountiful Wisterias..
Robins and Magpies, quarrelling Jackdaws…all
Peck and snatch the bread and the seed
‘Til a Squadron of Seagulls devours all the feed!
– Illustration & Poem: Hazel Brown
