[David Callin]

When we had saints, and saints had days,
this was St. Bart’s.
High-pitched hay went slowly home
on groaning carts.

It is a sweet spot
in the calendar:
out of summer’s pockets,
winter’s provender.

Cormorants – or is it shags –
finial the rocks.
In the meadows, grasshoppers
are knitting socks.

[R. Nemo Hill]

I love this one, David.
The prominence of the rhymes delights me, and the unexpected turns that thought takes as a result.
Plus how it begins almost prosaically and then veers and soon steers into rhyme and rhythm.
And the title is great as well.
It's a perfect poem, one to memorize.
Thumbs up!

Nemo

[Jim Moonan]

.
It seems altogether appropriate to simply say, "What Nemo said."
.

[John Riley]

I like it as well. Nemo does say why it works.

[Mark McDonnell]

I also think this is lovely, David. I love the first line. It sums up all the affection my heathen heart still has for the Church — that ritualistic marking of time. In fact everything in the poem, from the carts to the insects and birds, is slowly marking time.

I only wonder if the cormorant line is too loud an echo of the one that lays his eggs inside a paper bag.

[Carl Copeland]

All I can do is join in the chorus of praise, David. I too love the first line—and just about every one that follows. I wanted to fault S2L1 for being too short, but thought better of it: it works for me.

I do keep trying to read GRASS-hop-PER, but that’s my chanting habit and won’t likely fluster anyone but me.

I was never all that chummy with grasshoppers, and it’s been decades since I’ve seen one, so I’m curious: what do they do that resembles knitting socks?

[Julie Steiner]

Originally Posted by Carl Copeland

I was never all that chummy with grasshoppers, and it’s been decades since I’ve seen one, so I’m curious: what do they do that resembles knitting socks?

Carl, it's also probably been decades since you've heard knitting needles sliding over each other, and sometimes clicking, something lke this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Grasshoppers.ogg

I love it, David!

[Glenn Wright]

Hi, David—

Now that I’m old, I have the ability to reminisce nostalgically, choosing bright, vivid memories like photos in an album that warm me with their happy glow. You have a gift for writing poems about moments like that—this one, the one about the wren-pole, and the one about the ferry to Liverpool come to mind. I love all of them.

Glenn

[Rick Mullin]

Hi David,

I like the rhyme as well, but I really like the imagery. Cormorants are magnificent birds (I'm happy to learn they are in some places called shags!), and I love "finial". The birds and the carted hay resolving to grasshoppers knitting socks is really nice. It all pushes up to a nursery rhyme, but doesn't cross the line. It puts the mechanism to great use. I am also partial to saint poems that mention the calendar assignment. Residual Catholic boy thing.

Rick

[Carl Copeland]

Originally Posted by Julie Steiner

Carl, it's also probably been decades since you've heard knitting needles sliding over each other

Must be well over a century, Julie. I remember the chirping of crickets and katydids, but was never too clear about the sound of grasshoppers. Thanks!