Poetry – Oliver Tickell

Five Poems

trampled, rain-sodden the leaves
brown, green, yellow and
a crimson gilded

wings flapping to the wind
above the trees
the joy of the storm pigeon

juicy and sharp
the first few blackberries
summer’s sweetness yet to come

bounteous blackberries along the brook
warm and sweet they meet my lips

purple stained, thorn pierced
still my hands reach out for more
juice-swollen berries

 

Oliver Tickell is a writer, journalist, poet, and former editor of The Ecologist, living near the river Thames in Oxford