excerpt from Farm by the Shore by Thomas A. Clark

small oats rye bere barley
ripe harvest in late summer
a shallow ploughing
grazing and fallow in rotation

corncrake and corn bunting
great yellow bumble bee
oystercatcher lapwing golden plover
orchid vetch and clover

when no one is home
the strawberry roan
stands in the rain
forlorn

mattress of heather
of bracken or eelgrass
pillow of cottongrass
stuffed with a down
of coltsfoot or reedmace
floor strewn with bog myrtle

strong rope of heather
honeysuckle bridle
twisted birch bark tether
fish trap of sedge
purple moor-grass anchor rope

from Farm by the Shore (Manchester: Carcanet, 2017).
Reproduced with the permission of the author.