Today we are celebrating #NationalPoetryDay, by sharing a poem by Simon Jones.
In the run up to this year’s Wild Goose Festival, the Stove Network hosted a special Wild Goose edition of their bi-monthly open-mic night; Brave New Words.
Brave New Words is a platform for writers, artists, musicians and songwriters to share their words with an audience in the heart of Dumfries High Street, either spoken, sung, shot, signed or silenced.
This special Wild Goose edition was named ‘Keep Looking Up’, and took place on the 29th of September, 2023.
Local poet Simon Jones performed ‘Wild Geese’ – a self-penned poem about the beloved birds that migrate to Dumfries and Galloway each year.
This year’s #NationalPoetryDay theme is ‘Refuge’. The Wild Geese visit us each year to take refuge from the harsh weather conditions present at their Northern habitats. Simon’s poem celebrates the return of the geese to the wetlands of our region.
You can read Simon’s poem below.
Some folk love wild mammals
by Simon Jones
Your badgers your otters, wee timorous meece
For me for sure what makes my heart soar
Is the flight of the wild geese
They arrive in the month of October
Which I believe is month number ten
Navigating their way to the beach here
By some means that ah cannae ken.
For sure it’s not a satnav nor some new-fangled tech
Perhaps it’s some mystery organ at the back of their neck
Ye’ll hear a distant honking
Repeated across the skies
Far overhead amidst the clouds
The great flock flies
So wild to see, the great V
How many can there be
They always thrill me
Of all my meetings the best of all
Was part of one Wild Geese Festival
Where thousands would roost, it was said
On the beach at R S P B Mersehead
So down I trekked, nervous in new boots
In pursuit of thousands of goosely hoots
Across fields and dune we walked to the shore
There were none around, are they not here any more?
We waited around, awaiting a change of luck
By this point I’d have settled for an interestingly patterned duck
When low on the wind came a honking in chorus
One of Mother Nature’s miracles especially for us
Against the dusk-lit sky in mighty V formation
It seemed like an entire feathery goose nation
Spiritual and amazing like the roof of a church
We watched in stupid calm the reward for our search
So this October if you’re wondering what to do of a night
Make a trek to see thousands of wild geese in flight.