All feeling is in nature

Published on by Laura Bloomsbury 
All feeling is in nature: words, rhymes, books
Are too typeset; the mot juste cannot quite convey
Nuance from a choral work of roosting rooks
Or singing winds that cause the branch and grass to sway
Naked at the horizontal; these pull my breath away
And then inspire again just as moon turns tide
Twice about face from day to every day
There we sense where Deum in perpetuum abides
All this and so much more besides
All nature has a feeling: woods, fields, brooks  
  Are life eternal: and in silence they 
  Speak happiness beyond the reach of books; 
  There's nothing mortal in them; their decay 
  Is the green life of change; to pass away 
  And come again in blooms revivified.
  Its birth was heaven, eternal it its stay,
  And with the sun and moon shall still abide 
  Beneath their day and night and heaven wide

In the rhyme scheme and mould of John Clare’s ‘All nature has a feeling‘ for Bryan’s Tuesday prompt whereby he encourages us to“cover” a poem by a poet whom we admire: Poetics: Cover with Bryan. A belated offering in Open Link Night #185 and shelving it also for Poetry Pantry

36 thoughts on “All feeling is in nature”

    1. glad you could hear my song Björn – thank you – Clare surely heard music in nature though it drove him mad

  2. I actually find your cover to be more melodic, less staccato. It feels more harmonious to me, even though both poems carry deep and admirable emotions one should take heed. I really enjoyed reading your poem!

  4. Nature has no feelings. We, who are a product, of Nature, however bastardized and corrupted we’ve become. Nature talks to us in our language.

        1. The point is not veracity but the poet’s own sensitivities to nature and the happiness he finds in its eternal cycle

          1. True. But even those cycles are temporary on the grand scale – which bring us back to eternal cycles?

  5. It is true words only cover so much – but they are magical when brought together so beautifully and skilfully..it made me wonder if all writing ponders nature in some ways

    1. I guess poetry does its best with words Jae Rose – knowing what they convey far beyond their meaning

    1. thank you for seeing this as up to date – I like ending couplets as a rule Sumana but this one driven by emulating Clare’s own rhyme scheme –

  9. Ah yes the “nuances” in turn sound the loudest in our thoughts, if we are perceptive enough to listen

    Thanks for dropping in at my Sunday Standard today Laura

    much love…

  10. I love the way you took us from books to rooks.. and the inspiration nature provides the artist.

    1. an obvious rhyme I’ll admit Kerry but returning to simpler roots/routes helps shear off a tendency to superfluity!

    1. have a particular fondness for rookeries and their chorus 🙂

  13. A splendid cover of a wonderful source. I especially love:
    singing winds that cause the branch and grass to sway

    (But actually it is hard to separate anything out from a poem that flows so beautifully. Every lovely line and phrase is even better in context.)

    1. a beautiful bolstering comment Rosemary – thank you for such generous words

  14. A fascinating exercise. I will go back and read it again. I especially like the switch in the opening lines. It’s tricky and challenging. I think I will try this exercise. Very intriguing.

    1. thank you Mish – as a city dweller I listen even harder when I can

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