3. Remembering Imbolc: the Rea

by

Seasons, senses & self


Trees, streams & seasons – my mind goes back to 1st February…

Imbolc 2024

Sunset approaches.
A Rea Valley walk,
southward, towards light,
on Sustrans Route 5
to Holders Lane Wood.

Photosensitive,
I sit on a log
facing the sunset,
drinking in the light.
Winter’s dark has gone.

Birdsong around me.
Dry leaves underfoot.
Does spring start today?
Many would say so –
buds open; light grows.

Leafless trees display
their architecture
printed on the sky
in stark silhouette.
Wending my way back,

a great oak ahead
asserts its branches.
I keep glancing back –
sun dips out of sight.
Muscles start aching.

Seasons, senses & self 3/365:
Nudging you to... write? reflect? walk? notice? flow?

This is a 5x5x5 – 5 five-line stanzas, with five syllables in each line. (Bethany W Pope told me that she invented the 5×5 – in other words, five lines with five syllables each. They’re a bit like haiku. I often string them together like this.) I try to make each line a separate phrase, and each stanza self-contained. I also try to focus on my senses, and what’s around me as I write. This one isn’t a good example of all that really, but so often just writing is more important than writing well. (Fixed ideas of what writing should be like are so inhibiting!) At least I’m practising those five-syllable phrases – by writing repeatedly in any pattern, I find I internalise it.

If this inspires you to write a 5x5x5 yourself, I’d love to read it.

My original plan was to start this seasonal writing for ReadWriteFlow at Imbolc (1st Feb – along with May Day, the solstices and equinoxes, 1st August and 1st November, it’s one of the markers many people celebrate as part of the ‘wheel of the year’). So it was natural, seven months on, picking up on the ‘trees & streams’ strand in Seasons, senses & self, to remember that walk.
 Read more on Seasons, senses & self:
The plan
Other posts in the series
Author's intro to the series
Contact the author (Chris Fewings)