The Winter King
I am currently making a visual, mixed media art piece with the working title “The Winter King”. It includes the photograph above, which I took in Broadley Inclosure in the New Forest a few years ago. Thinking about the piece, and trying to make it, brought this poem to the surface.
This seems to happen quite often. I write a poem and it leads me to make a 2D or 3D art piece, or I make an image which then leads on to a poem. In both cases, I’m still trying to make windows into the world, for myself and for others who might wish to look through.
The Winter King
The old Winter King
beckons you
and you must follow
between these
brittle waiting trees
into the dark.
Step hesitantly
beneath bone-
bare branches bladed,
sharp white cold
and pale gold haloed,
into the dark.
The fugitive sun
falling in
to sanctuary,
the silent
forest drawing you
into the dark.
Your nervous footsteps
snow-muffled.
Do not look behind.
At your back
the whole world falling
into the dark.