Following Butterflies ............ 4
Winter Butterfly ............ 6
The Lake Isle of Innisfree ............ 8 Environment ............ 10
Wild Child ............ 12
Happy Birthday Moon ............ 14
You May Have Heard of Me ............ 16
from The Song of the Open Road ............ 18
Pleasant Sounds ............ 20
How to Conjure a Poem in Eight Easy Steps ............ 21
I Do Solemnly Declare It … ............ 22
Counting Out Rhyme ............ 23
Praying ............ 24
Wild Child
she knew the rhythm of the seasons celandine to violet, her eyes were mirrors to her dreams of butterflies and blackbird eggs
and still water was her special place fat notes of nymph and dragonfly would leave her staring far away part of meadow, earth and sky
not there the teachers told her mother not all there the doctor said and though she sat beside the window always she was somewhere else
though the squirrel understands a tree a bird clouds, fish rivers, sea yet no one knows well a child that’s wild as briar rose or honey bee
Sue Hardy-Dawson