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Jorn Peter Budesheim, Matt Gilbert, Emily Tee


BEAR IN A TREE, JÖRN PETER BUDESHEIM
BEAR IN A TREE, JÖRN PETER BUDESHEIM

OUT OF THE DEAD WOOD

Matt Gilbert


You hope this season of despair will end. Picture spring igniting 

once again. To overthrow the lie that all of this belongs to us, 

our great blue throne, our own earth cradle – ours alone to reap 

and ravish as we wish. Rising from the ashes and the rot – 

woods’ dead leaves return. Skeletal re-skinned, unfurled as green 

and wind-kissed pennants. Plugging ragged gaps, scratched out 

from ravaged canopy, during this, love’s cruellest winter. While in 

the understorey, old and mud-slicked ways will harden into paths 

to cushion feet. All squint inducing screams of fox and parakeet, 

shall be countered by battalions of songbirds. Fluttering round 

your shoulders, pouring out their feather hearts. And though crows 

croak still rankle rusty, it’s but one note, in a chorus, led by blackbirds. 

Wild music, charged to blow all wrongs apart, scattering the dust comfort 

of dejection. Nightmare fades to dream. You hope. You hope. You hope. 



I HEARD THE SMALL KINGDOMS BREATHING

Emily Tee


         after "Sleeping in the forest" by Mary Oliver


from deep within I was drawn into their midst

across the fields and into the wooded hills -

the scattered flocks of chattering finches,

early morning crows calling out their caws,

the rasping sound of beetles, scratching.

I thought I could even hear the tunnelling

of earthworms, ever diligent, industrious,

turning over soil, improving it in their own way

as I listened, hunkered down on the forest floor.

Above, clouds streamed in under sun and moon

while the earth turned slowly, steadfast on its path

and all the small creatures of this forest world

inhaled and exhaled, anchored in their domain,

and I stayed, silent, till I felt I was one of them.



[Previously published in Free Verse Revolution, Issue IX: Anchor]


Jörn Peter Budesheim was born in Marburg in 1960, studied art in Kassel until 1986, where he has lived ever since. He received the Kassel Cultural Award, was on the board of the documenta forum (2016–2022), and is a member of the Kunstbalkon gallery. From 2019 to 2023, he was involved in the Hugenottenhaus, an art venue in Kassel, and has been a member of the artist collective Naturkunde since 2021. Numerous exhibitions in Germany and abroad since 1978. Jörn Budesheim is a draughtsman; what counts is beauty and poetry. His subject is man in his reality. https://www.instagram.com/j.p.budesheim https://www.facebook.com/joern.budesheim www.budesheim.art


Matt Gilbert is a freelance copywriter, who also blogs about place, books, poetry and other distractions at richlyevocative.net. Originally from Bristol, he currently gets his fill of urban hills in South East London. He has had poems published by Northern Gravy, Southword and Stand among others. His debut collection Street Sailing was published by Black Bough Poetry in 2023.


Emily Tee, originally from Northern Ireland, lives in the UK Midlands. She writes about nature, the environment and society. She's had poems published in print by Dreich, Poetry Scotland, Free Verse Revolution, several anthologies by The Wee Sparrow Poetry Press, the 'Ancient' edition of The Winged Moon and other places online including Green Ink Press.

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