Jorn Peter Budesheim, Matt Gilbert, Emily Tee

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.