Giles Watson's poetry and prose
Fairy-Ring on the Downs
Fairy-Ring on the Downs
The settlement spreads outwards:
a mycelial sprawl, marked
by a rampart of darker green.
It is like a loving thought:
always seeking, with white
fingers. It creeps, because
it fears it isn't quite
decent - worms furtively
toward ends beyond itself.
It's the grim persistence
that is so self-sacrificial,
so primed for survival.
Hills are scarred with ramparts:
fossil ripplings-outwards.
Poem by Giles Watson, 2013. The picture shows a "fairy ring", probably caused by the fungus Marasmius oreades, in the turf of a downland "gallop" on the Ridgeway between Ogbourne St. George and the ancient Iron Age hill-fort, Barbury Castle. Another hill-fort, Liddington Castle, can be seen on the edge of the escarpment on the horizon.
Fairy-Ring on the Downs
Fairy-Ring on the Downs
The settlement spreads outwards:
a mycelial sprawl, marked
by a rampart of darker green.
It is like a loving thought:
always seeking, with white
fingers. It creeps, because
it fears it isn't quite
decent - worms furtively
toward ends beyond itself.
It's the grim persistence
that is so self-sacrificial,
so primed for survival.
Hills are scarred with ramparts:
fossil ripplings-outwards.
Poem by Giles Watson, 2013. The picture shows a "fairy ring", probably caused by the fungus Marasmius oreades, in the turf of a downland "gallop" on the Ridgeway between Ogbourne St. George and the ancient Iron Age hill-fort, Barbury Castle. Another hill-fort, Liddington Castle, can be seen on the edge of the escarpment on the horizon.