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A NEW SPRING
By INGRID RILEY

Glacial clouds in monumental progress,
a breeze swoops over blossoming cherry trees,
an unseen bird among fragile branches
makes an ecstatic sound that travels far.

Ice-crystals whirling like a swarm of moths,
white-winged, stealing the day-light.
A peering sun chases the dreary day,
brightness spreads like fragments of cut glass,
fields of vegetables pulse with colour.

A rustle of birds' wings flying from nests,
the wind roars in a tangled roof of green,
wild things scuttle, doors and windows shut
like the dance of forces round an axis.

After the rain streets show a fresh-scrubbed face,
in the fragrance that rainbows unfold
a longing for tenderness sweeps your feet
hidden in the snowdrops and daffodils.

Warm and cold air in habitual battle
sparking thunderbolts with short, sharp bursts,
fires like open wounds on the face of night
opening the buds with a sudden rush,
every breath renewing the beat of growth.

URBAN DEVELOPMENT
By INGRID RILEY

On a promising early morning
infuriating sounds of bulldozers
invading our space, sending thundering shock-waves
through our district, crushing trees cut the air.

Our protest to keep the village green
fell on deaf ears. The Council knew better,
brought monsters in to create space,
rolling over roses in full bloom.

A frozen reality brings despair
to glazed beetles, crickets and butterflies
leaving their habitat in a hurry,
rasping noises disturbing a bee-hive.

Cranes dangle in airspace above roof-tops,
the burnt smell of autumn mixes in.
A restless gloom occupies my mind,
open space dwindles in front of my eyes.

After the onslaught disfigured places,
the ruthless attack leaves behind vast pain.
In the green pasture beauty is lost;
no room for flowers, trees and birds.

IN THE WARZONES
By INGRID RILEY

Peace and War like trains moving side by side,
unreeling as fast as a movie,
accelerating into the unknown,
detaching themselves from humanity,
uniformed wielders of guns stalking streets,
becoming alien killer-machines.

The mask of evil printed on the face
of some commanding chief who leads the way
to torture and sadistic cruelty.
Their eerie faces with sardonic smiles
savouring a dose of savageness.

The screams of prisoners kill our dreams of peace,
graphic deatils hunched the world in mute shock,
infuriate even the hardest men.
Calls for justice and revenge are rife.

Harrowing pictures of prison torture
revealing the darkness of the captors,
lead to a bloody backlash and violence,
to undiluted hate,
foreshadowing a leaded path to peace.

THE CHERRY TREE
By INGRID RILEY

Your towering height offends the neighbours,
your leafy wings darken their windows,
they even claim you block their view.

In Spring your cherry-flowers open
so thick they screen my flower-beds
flushing in the warm evening sun.

Fragrant-scented flowers drift in the wind,
their pink blossoms spread across the lawn
descending on my neighbour's garden.

Their shrill complaints determining your fate,
they cannot see the lustre of your flowers,
in your shade nothing can flourish, they say.

How helpless my heart as your leaves rustle,
your body trembling in aching pain
as gnawing metal teeth attack your stem.

How my sad heart slips back to the past,
yearning for those tantalizing moments
watching the sunlight filtering through branches.

My garden will never be the same,
my eyes will seek the cherry-flowers
which linger in my memory.

© All work copyright of Ingrid Riley.

INGRID is from Canterbury, Kent, and has been published in E.R., P&F, and several PEACE & FREEDOM PRESS anthologies. She has also produced several anthologies of her own work.

INGRID RILEY POETRY COLLECTIONS

1) KALEIDOSCOPE WORLD, 1995
ISBN 09525304 0 6, £2.40 incl. p&p

2 SHADOWS RUN FREE, 1996
ISBN 09525304 1 4, £3.50 incl. p&p

3) FACES OF WAR, 1999
ISBN 09525304 2 2, £4.60 incl. p&p

4) MEASURED RINGS, 2005
ISBN 09525304 3 0, £5.99 incl. p&p

Measured Rings Review by Paul Rance
A superbly produced paperback collection of around 100 pages. Ingrid's poetry is split up into four sections: 'Timeless', 'Conflict', 'Our Past', and 'In the Cradle of Earth', and son Peter's striking b/w photos are included before each section, and on the cover. The book was edited by Ingrid's husband, Graham. As always with Ingrid's work there's a lot of moving material, including the poignant 'The Cherry Tree', which was based on a personal experience, and 'Iraq's War', a short pertinent poem on the distressing mess now redolent in that country. Particularly notable are Ingrid's beautiful, descriptive poems about nature, including 'Measured Rings', 'Under the Willow Tree', and 'Sunflowers'. This is Ingrid's best anthology to date.
Available for £5.99 from INGRID RILEY, 18 Uplands, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7BL.

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