Swedish Wood

  1. We were contacted by geographer and journalist called Karin Gunnarsson from Uppsalla in Sweden
    She made us aware of a local campaign to stop a wood being developed for flats
    Geoff sent two paintings to be displayed on the fence and from the treehouse which the people had created in one of the trees
    He also wrote two poems to be displayed on the fence and in any press releases
    He added words from the poems to the largest canvas entitled – Reaching for the Sky
    The idea was to encourage other artists and the general public to add their thoughts on the face of one of the canvases – Woodland Temple
    The images and videos here something of the story of what has happened so far

The Poems-

Reaching for the Sky

In shadows

Cast by the trees

Life is at the mercy

Of an ill considered ‘benign’ terrorism

But rebel guerilla spirit

Dwells within the enchantment

Of the woods

Through the leaves

the sun flashes semaphore

Clues to Buddha’s ancient mystery

Hear the songs of the trees

Whispering

Chanting their love of life

Dancing to their own rhythm

Feeding life back into the earth

Passing tree to tree

Mouth to mouth

Searching for that belief

Will the spirit in the wind

Recognise the face

It kisses and caresses

So softly

Who will it count

As one of its own

 

NO MORE nails plunged deep

Into Nature’s coffin lid

NO MORE spores of destruction

On a relentlessly  unchanging wind

Copyright Geoff Francis 2021

Www.enchantedwood.org

 

Nature’s Gift

Winter wood

stands sentry

over the stillness

hard against

the clear blue

of the day

without each tree

life would be

just breath

without a meaning

for drawing it

The leaves spring

calling from within

their frozen fortress

a reprise of randomly recalled joy

lived once in the same life

refreshing a hoped for future

each moment

a delight in waiting

An inevitable encounter

not knowing

what nature will gift

recognise when nature

gives herself to you

In those moments

you really are alive

That gift may not be grand or dramatic

like a soaring bird of prey

Just small and exquisite

like the light on a rare beetle’s wing      

Copyright Geoff Francis

www.enchantedwood.org

 

Both poems will appear in a new collection edited by David Erdos and called Return to Reason