“Why I Love Where I Live”


Summer Competition organised by the History Group
In the Adult Category the Prize-winning Entry is this poetic piece by Lesley Fennel


A Year in Benhall Suffolk: Notes from the Bicycle Basket

January
A daylight vixen scans the hedgerows and returns to her den, empty mouthed.

February
Tree trunks, vivid as snakes, are startled by sunlight.
Snowdrops spread a magic carpet beneath.

March
Birds pierce hedges - find secret places, weaving miracles with straw and twigs.
Laundry snaps at chilly wind.

April
A cuckoo
Then, the strangest of calls, a plangent peacock in our midst.

May
We breathe the frothy breath of a million tiny flowers, cupped in armfuls of green.
Bluebells ignite woodland floors, forgotten by sunlight.

June
Swifts call time in the sky, breaking in the open-windowed morning.
Bees visit ribbons of poppies, hemming the fields.

July
A tiny rabbit stares skyward, as tarmac bakes.
Windswept barley, a fugue in gold.

August
Hares stare over the teeth of emptied fields.
Pigeons feast.

September
An owl scythes the darkness like a shard of moonlight.
All things are bountiful, including our hearts.

October
Waning sunlight embraces - a lovers’ parting of warmth, lost to time.

November
The long empty shells of fallen fruit, crisp with frost, on the orchard grass.

December
Logs, ring by ring, inscribe the passing years.
Friends gather and woodsmoke softens ice.

Christmas

A constellation of lanterns bobs down the chill hushed street.
We shuffle, wait and sing, for hope, for joy and our own re-birth.