This poem begins with a quotation by John Ruskin
“Nature is painting for us,
day after day,
pictures of infinite beauty.”
Nothing is beyond her fresh, age-old hands:
she scatters silvery stars across
watercoloured oceans and inky midnight skies
and chalks the feathery wings of snowfall
upon marbled mountains towering tall.
Patchwork quilts of lime, fern and pear,
the giant rainbow scarf the sky wears
and purple knits of wild moorland blooms
all fill her lofty exhibition rooms.
Look out for
fuzzy, striped prints on bumblebees,
the shine of fruit hanging from trees,
splashed speckles on eggs waiting to sing,
the gaze of eyespots from butterfly wings.
And it’s easy to see
her magic whispers set free,
green-embroidered beside the man-made track,
wending all the way to the city and back.
Admire her dancing meadow doodles
(drawn in her idle time),
her crocheted clouds of ox-eye daisies
and, oh so delicate, sculptures
of light-catching dandelion glitter balls –
“Everyone to the party,” she calls.
Nature is a colossal kaleidoscope,
ringing in cheer through the year,
her imagination a masterpiece.
*
Linda Middleton lives in the East of England and enjoys writing poetry for children. Some of her poems have found beautiful homes in The Caterpillar, The Dirigible Balloon, Little Thoughts Press, Northern Gravy, Tyger Tyger and several anthologies. One of Linda’s poems was selected by Candlestick Press for Twelve Poems for 2025. In her spare time, she can be found walking through her local woods and enjoying the wonders of nature, often with the seed of a new poem in her heart.
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