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North East Bylines
Home Culture Poetry

White Stag

Poem by Suzanne Fairless-Aitken

Suzanne Fairless-AitkenbySuzanne Fairless-Aitken
05-08-2022 18:00
in Poetry
Reading Time: 2 mins
A A
white stag

Illustration by Tom Owen

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Vision without action is a daydream 
Action without vision is a nightmare  - Japanese proverb 

Cobwebs fall from my eyes
Brushed there by the trees
As I emerge from the river,
Shivering in the breeze.
Into ancient forest
Sinking into peat,
Leaves dance down 
Mulching at my feet,
Lazy light swells and pulses
Making me yearn for rest,
My swollen eyelids
Tick with tiredness,
I seek a second magpie
Where murderous corvids roost,
I count seven as they
Startled, suddenly swoop.
Beech nuts snap their furry jaws Blood berries float in tangled limbs, In this terraced valley Where river slices thin. Then in a glade I see him White stag - statue-bold, With graceful twist of neck, Pink eyes locked in hold. Framed briefly in papery birch, Then startles and I chase As if in medieval hunt In breathless pursuit we race Until under solitary ash tree Beneath the boughs he stops, Burnt branches on the right - The left, black buds stripped off.
My chest beats, rise and fall, Condensed clouds evaporate and billow into fuller mist, Where whispering woods aspirate. I sooth the charred bark, And reach through the haze To grasp the final fruit Before the end of days.
Rotten, it dissolves in my hand, Turning to dust as if from sand Drifting down to iron earth Kissing fairy rings below, Where mycelium seeks truth Though carrion circles grow.
I cannot go any farther As if hidden rubicon, I turn to ask directions but my gentle stag has gone. So I return to clear water, Thirsting for purer mind. How I long for lucid vision. But I am blind. Suzanne Fairless-Aitken - December 2019
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Suzanne Fairless-Aitken

Suzanne Fairless-Aitken

Suzanne Fairless-Aitken is a mum from Hexham, who was recently elected as Northumberland County Councillor & Hexham Town Councillor for the LibDems. She works for international poetry publisher, Bloodaxe Books, and also runs her own editing company, Swift Permissions. In her murky past she has been a school governor, activist and campaigner for education, green issues, anti-austerity and anti-corruption. She writes in any spare time she can find.

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