Dawnings
Pond life
By Nicholas Hooper
My pond has life but I can’t see it.
Waiting for small wriggly things in an apparently stagnant muse
is like waiting for nature’s hand to hold the chilly waters and say,
‘yes, you can have frogs, you can have newts, the pondweed will grow,
the edge of cheaty plastic will be covered in green
and your pond will be a thriving oasis of natural interest.’
But I am impatient.
I feel I should do more.
Read up about ponds and become an expert.
Buy more plants, stuff it with life and compost.
Buy a machine to aerate it with cheerful bubbles.
But to leave it to take its natural course is so difficult.
It needs patience
and pond life
will come.
—————
About Dawnings:
“Every morning at around 5am I get up and go down to my studio. After a short meditation I write down whatever is in my head, giving myself fifteen minutes to do so. Then moving over to the piano (or a more portable instrument like my Ukulele when I'm away), I improvise and record a piece of music inspired by whatever words I just wrote. It is a great way of keeping both my writing and my composing going and I call these small creations Dawnings. They are mostly unedited, like sketches, so that they keep that fresh feeling of an early morning discovery.”
— Nick Hooper