Garden

By Sarah Bennett-Green

I was witness to strange times.
When rain sliced through the heat of spring.

And did you hear?

Following moments of madness,
there arrived a brief tranquillity.

Permitting birds to soar
and exclaim their testimonies.

Blackbirds warned, the song thrush performed,
and the wren and robin rejoiced.

Then, as I sat under the silver birch,
came the silence.

Shaken only by the rustle of leaves.

At the age of 70 I obtained my MA in Creative Writing from Exeter University. As a young person, dance was my expression –  however, now I have discovered poetry!

I wrote this poem at the beginning of the first lockdown when we were experiencing the hot spring and violent rain storms.

We have a large garden in Devon, and the poem came to me while I was walking through it.  We live in a village in Mid-Devon on a busy High Street, and as there was no traffic, the silence was amazing and sitting under the willow tree was a beautiful experience – something positive in these awful times.

Writing poetry throughout the pandemic, has been/is a life-saver, I experience such positivity and it really helps with my confidence as I am a relative new comer to writing in this genre.