Songwriter, photographer, countryman, writer and therapist. Nature’s ally, working to leave the world a better place. Visit brianboothby.co.uk for ‘Firegazing’ album, poetry and many other vital details.
Website: brianboothby.co.uk
Flying Flags for Imbolc © Brian Boothby
Deep Violet © Brian Boothby
Woods of Bluebell and Stitchwort © Brian Boothby
Birdsfoot Trefoil © Brian Boothby
Harvest Celebration
© Brian Boothby
Apple’s Gift © Brian Boothby
Fly Agaric © Brian Boothby
Overnight Transformation
© Brian Boothby
These days, I search
the sky
the clean light upon the water
and the deep space under the trees . . . . . . . . . . .
But nothing will be right, ‘til they come
Already buds line the twigs,
hedges twitch with life,
and winter flies north,
but winter won’t be gone, ‘til they come
And there’s so much to do
clearing out the old, channelling the new . . . . . . .
old engines started and oiled,
none of it worthwhile, if they don’t come
These days I search . . . . . . . .
Look there . . . . . . .in the clean light over the water
through that deep space under the trees,
those flickering perfect arrows of blue
suddenly unlock summer’s flood . . . . . . . . . . . .
Swallows are here
These days I watch
the sky,
the clean light over the water
the deep space under the trees
Swallows are here.
Swallow Song (song lyric from Firegazing) © Brian Boothby
Sun to Shore © Brian Boothby
January © Brian Boothby
February © Brian Boothby
March © Brian Boothby
April © Brian Boothby
May © Brian Boothby
June © Brian Boothby
July © Brian Boothby
August © Brian Boothby
September © Brian Boothby
October © Brian Boothby
November © Brian Boothby
December © Brian Boothby
A subtle moment between winter and spring,
Imbolc, perched on a blade of frost,
teases a cold thaw
from a sharp freeze;
days have inched longer day by day,
fibre-optically instilling new light
in feathers’ rekindling from survival
to flamboyance;
post-traumatic debris:
whipwired grasses,
loomed on splintered twigs
mossmould to cups for new eggs;
birdtalk and flowerstalk conspire,
whispering between the buds,
and the longer light leans now
toward a distant dawning colour rush of equinox;
the brooding winter shroud slips,
twitches with brooding spring secrets:
alike, but different,
the puberty of the year.
Imbolc © Brian Boothby 2020
You leave no written word, I say,
You leave no written word,
( .... while the falling of the rain
leads us dripping to the cairn ....)
This is how we write, you say,
This is how we write.
( ..... in the shelter of the stones
there are echoes of the echoes of echoes, echoing .....)
But how do we know your mind, I ask,
How do we know your mind?
( .... and the rhythm of a rhyming
rings remembrance in the rain .... )
It’s written on the land, you say,
It is written on the land.
Chanted Conversation with Nether Largie South Cairn, Kilmartin © Brian Boothby 2020
Fire as lightlure, sparkspinning shadowdancer,
.......... step-light, eye-bright, knitting souls to bones,
holding our dreams for safe-keeping.
Fire as solar heart, radiant orphan, starsibling,
.......... double-edged sword, driver of drought and scald,
rainbow, aurora, renewal and ruin.
Fire as pot-baker, charcoal-maker, oven, still, welder and smelter,
........... brightmetal midwife, forge-focus, torch and crucible,
fusion of To Be and Done.
Fire in the belly, spirit whipcrack, ember of genius,
........... cutloose cup of daring, leap of love,
arcing out of time,
unleashing soul from bone
Album (from Firegazing) © Brian Boothby 2016
It could be missed,
Just for want of an outstretched hand,
Separate death on every island
Because no-one dared the sea.
But from such a scattering, here's a thing:
A navajo frame, threads of unsung mystics;
There, aborigine weft, tibetan warp;
In us all, colour and strength,
Spirit and science.
From every island hands dare the sea,
A new tribe is weaving
To warm mother earth.
It can be done.
It could be missed.
It could be missed © Brian Boothby
Breathe in
the deep faraway,
clean the palate on the moist and smell of far-off snow.
Gentle the eyes on moss-top autumn trees
and whistle in the winterbird from the patchwork stars.
Feel,
through the veils of living,
deadline tangle, shoulds and must-haves
to un-be
from whatever dulls and disenchants.
Whispering like a spinning wheel,
threading one year to the next
goes Samhainstory:
aspen a-shimmer through the deep soft faraway;
weaving through the whistling constellations;
through the veil and silk of snow
and also .......... bright in the being,
Right here, right now.
Samhainstory © Brian Boothby
i remember
the breath that makes up everything
i remember
being so small that i am the point of everything
i remember
speaking without words, knowledge without language, wisdom
before thought
i remember
the union of opposites within the beating of blood, within the within
i remember
the fusing of subject and object
i remember
land's life being my life
But sometimes i forget
and remembering is like coming home, every time
i remember © Brian Boothby