CUCKOO ROCK

Crossing over the Clapper Bridge,
Heading for Cuckoo Rock
Peering inside potato caves,
Woodpeckers taking stock

Of what’s been left in the Blowing House
Left of Tinner’s Mill
Where singing nettles and bracken
Sing to the magpie still:

Sometimes you may see them
Sometimes you may not
Keep your eyes wide open
They’re difficult to spot

Then call to the crow and the jayfly
Yaffle at the Yaffling Tree,
Follow the swallow tomorrow
Bring back tomorrow to me

As today and the rest of the week
Lie there in granite and heather
Lie and remain in the bluebell gorse
Lie there in all kinds of weather:

And sometimes you may see it
Sometimes you may not
Keep your eyes wide open
It’s difficult to spot

As hard to find as the finger sign
On the hand of the talking clock,
Crossing over the Clapper Bridge
Heading for Cuckoo Rock.

MAGICAL VALLEY

The pipeline lies in the pathway,
The pathway that takes the place
Of mother-rock and water-rock:
Wipe that mess off your face!

The raven crows to the blackbird,
The blackbird starts to shiver
In naval-weed and buttonwort:
Keep your eye on the river

Where water-rock and mother-rock
Rock the water to sleep
Now the ivy’s gone and the ferns have gone:
If it wasn’t deer it was sheep!

And after that, the darkness,
Darkness inside the clay
And whatever it was the crystal saw:
Put all of that away!

Says mother-rock to water-rock:
Rock the stones of heaven
Now the granite in your hand
Is sandspoil in the land of Devon

Where the pipeline lies in the pathway;
The pathway leads to an alley:
Where a nesting box is a nesting box
Deep in Magical Valley.