Sea mist in winter
22nd November
Two tawny owls calling from the wooded valley’s darkness. One male, one female – they seemed already to share the valley and, as they called, approached closer and closer until, finally, they seemed to meet. It sounded a raucous conjunction in the misty branches of hidden blue.
Sea mist, dense with cold, chill darkness.
Oystercatchers at the beach; silent graces fast over grey waters, through murky air, absent into winter mist.
Walking later over cliffs through eerie banks of mist, two score goldfinch, a charm, swerve strong through the chill damp breeze, feeding in the stubbly crops.
And a bell, clarion of the tide, floating on its rolling buoy, a messenger of the sea’s long swell, ringing through the morning, invisible below.