Pike and the Ligdenaires

David Pike is the man behind the Ligden Poetry Society, that happy band of beery bards who meet every now and then to versify and quaff in those quaint and curious Wiltshire pubs and inns.
David also edits Pulsar, a publication now in it's 13th year. Those of us residing too far from the bacon rearing County of Wiltshire to chew the poetic fat and lean can still get a taste of the enterprise via the LPS website at www.pulsarpoetry.com, or through Pulsar, which comes out in March and September.

With kind permission of David Pike here's a lovely poem of his from the September 2006 edition of Pulsar:

Millrace

Clear water,
a ripple or two
below mill spume,
a glimmer of activity
in mid stream -

through a chill surface
something moves? flits,
hits the eye
and stirs the mind
with boyhood echoes

a charge of raw energy -
lithe sinew, braced
resists the race,
hovering over gravel
like a grey
torpedo

gills rhythmically chew water
suck in, push out,
filtering, absorbing

then, spooked
it surges, advances
in a cutting arc
through downland water,
honed to perfection
cuts liquid like the sharpest
shard...

brook trout
leaves the picture,
an indistinct hue
colouring the observer's thoughts
with quicksilver,

a wondrous thing

too vital
to linger.

c) David Pike

Keep visiting http//:Poetry-in-Residence.blogspot.com for what's good in poetry.
P-i-R will be publishing more of the best of David Pike in the coming weeks.