Under the window spread a tree
great leaves, sweet white flowers
Magnolia I suppose
but Tom cared less
down the tree cat-like
across the garden lawn
over the iron railings
up the park toward the wood
The under gardener gave chase
– the dairymaid jumped up
gave chase to Tom
a groom cleaning Sir John’s hack
let him go, ran out and gave chase
Grimes upset the soot-sack
ran out and gave chase
the ploughman left his
horses at the headland
ran on, gave chase
the keeper taking a stoat out of
a trap caught his own finger
but jumped up and ran after Tom
Sir John looked out his window
a martin dropped mud in his eye
yet he ran out – gave chase to Tom
Never was there heard
at Hall Place
such a noise
row, hubbub
stramash, charivari
total contempt of dignity
repose and order
as that day
the very magpies and jays
followed Tom
© Andrew Wilson, 2023
This is a found poem with words derived from The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley. The title – Evolution, is because Kingsley was a naturalist around the exciting time when the work of Wallage and Darwin were revolutionising the worlds of science, geology and biology and there will be found poems that reference this aspect of the tale. But so far, the finding of poems has been more like the method for refining poems since Kingsley writes very lyrical passages anyway…
The image is derived in Midjourney.
This series was inspired by my friend Misky over at It’s Still Life who has been producing a series of Found Poems…