I wrote these sixty-four improvisations whilst walking to and from walk between October 2015 and February 2016. I gave myself arbitrary instructions that each poem should contain a reference to the black cat that had adopted us earlier in the year and the river Torysa which flows about a hundred metres past our house. I organised the improvisations according to the passage of the seasons from Spring through to Winter.













  

  

  PROPRIETY


All at once more considered,
more leisurely, more constructed,
over time less inspired,
less impetuous, less improvised,
the garden comes alive at appointed places,
brown, violet, pink velvet buds,
nature imitating the unnatural,
staked, pruned, espaliered,
a language on its best behaviour,
voices practising a nuance,
hands splaying their fingers to make a point,
smiles not residing in the eyes,
laughter deliberately musical,
a heart breaking with perfect manners
unlike the river unruly with melting ice
while slightly elsewhere between little
avenues of rose twigs the black cat trots
with the first song of spring in her jaws.