Though the clocks have gone forward, and Spring is in the air, Wintersong, a poetry collection by Joy Mead is a relevant read at any time. Here she tells us of the inspiration behind the collection and shares poems.

Wintersong
By Joy Mead
Published by Wild Goose Publications

These poems were written in a disturbing and troubling context – an emotional time of absence and loss which also proved to be an opportunity to search and remember. Out of the shadows, the darkness, and often the injustice, the need to lament and mourn goes hand in hand with the special significance of small moments and ordinary occasions.

So the poems attempt to express the poet’s calling and the value of poetry and creativity as they contemplate moments of loss and joy, both in my own life and in the lives of others near and far. And above all else Wintersong is a book with a longing to keep hope alive.

More than human wisdom,
looking is the poet’s charge:
to mark and mourn
death and loss;
to not let things go by
unnoticed; to respond
to the daily miracles, the music
of wind in the trees,
across stones, in the grass,
the shimmer of the willow –

 how I see your face
in the darkness of absence.

(‘From within the dark times’)

Awake!

Be gentle as you walk
on the good Earth,
our home and life-giver.
Touch with kindness
all that has being
and shares with you
this sacred space.

Be still and connect
in the silence
what you are
with what you value.

Give attention to life’s littleness.
Contemplate what it means
to honour the small things –
the seeds and sunlight –
that sustain our wider being.
Listen, feel, touch and smell;
think and imagine –
these are sacred acts.
Real life is what it is,
not what you might be told it is.

Watch and never turn away.
Discern what is needful.
We can no longer sleep unaware
nor be silent while others sleep.
May the sound of our own voices
disturb our foolish slumber.

Awake and see!
Awake and tell what you see!
Awake and seek
a beautiful future
for all the Earth
and its creatures.

Winter Song by Joy Mead is published by Wild Goose Publications, priced £9.99.