Inversnide
Westchester County, NY
After Inversnaid by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Written in the studio in C. Langley Dunwood’s garden and in response to her poem: My Wilderness: A Meditation
No darksome burn, horseback brown,
Comes bounding with the deer fence down
To pool upon the bluestone flags
Beside the stacks of mulching bags.
Comes bounding with the deer fence down,
Yet fern-froth where the leafmould’s thick
Spills over paths of weathered brick
And heirloom plants forget their place.
To pool upon the bluestone flags,
Unbriefed, the weeds ignore the plan –
And dandelion, chickweed, dock –
Defying edgers and the clock.
Beside the stacks of mulching bags,
The compost heap is tucked away.
Let wilding weeds be left alone
Till Thursday, when the work crew comes.
______________________________
Today, Laura hosts dVerse with the invitation to write form of quatrains called a retourné – a poem of 16 lines made up of 4 quatrains with 8 syllables per line. It has a tumbling refrain using the last 3 lines of the first stanza thus: xABC Axxx Bxxx Cxxx.
So what better poet to have as a model than Gerard Manley Hopkins, whose poem Inversnaid is about a tumbling mountain stream (a burn) rushing down to Loch Lomond?
Inversnide is my attempt.
With many thanks to dVerse and Laura and, of course Gerard Manley Hopkins. Thank you also to C. Langley Dunwood who gave me tea and biscuits in her lovely garden and whose poem was such an inspiration. It led mine as a mountain stream leads to a lake and a garden path to the compost heap.
Featured image: Detail: Childe Hassam The Water Garden 1909