The Succour Trees

In Gethsemane

olives were the only ones

(excluding angels)

who stood by the Son of God

as he wept and sweated blood.

Andrew Lansdown

from Vegetal Variations

In the garden bed

those petunia trumpets
pink-noting themselves.

Andrew Lansdown

Kyoto Autumn Maples

i

Stopping on a bridge

crossing the Kamo, we see

in the smooth water

the autumn maples burning

on the ash-beds of the clouds.

ii

Around Kyoto’s

ancient palace and temples

in the failing fall

we stroll with the Japanese

among the Maple Galaxies.

iii

Kyoto’s autumn

is mystical and magical

for gaijin like me:

I watch as my woman goes

firewalking among maples.

iv

They’ve mistaken us,

it seems, for rival ninjas,

the autumn maples,

who are, for all their dear lives,

attacking us with star-knives.

v

Kyoto autumn

maple leaves remind me of

the spring of my life

when my small children sometimes

put their chapped hands into mine.

vi

Against the coldness

of Kyoto’s late autumn—

tug off a glove, lift

up your hand, feel on your palm

the colour of the maples.

Andrew Lansdown

Prattle

for Hannah

She seems to think

I’m owed an explanation,

my granddaughter:

seeing me she straightway starts

her prolonged earnest prattle.

Andrew Lansdown