Mabh Savage
Words and the world passing by; how it sings to me; how I clamour back.
NaPoWriMo Day 10: The Curlew, She Calls Me
Nothing moves me more than their call
Whooping joyfully over the tents
Winding up over and over
A perpetual toy helicopter
Always on the verge of either
Taking off or landing
The beating wings so fierce
So fast
Then soaring effortlessly
While their ghost cries fill the
Grey afternoon.
Then comes the night
Oyster catchers fly purposefully north east
Heading for the coast
Chasing the low tide
Yet the curlew still roams
Perhaps she’s guarding her nest
Perhaps she’s talking to a neighbour
Perhaps she’s just out doing bird errands
Humans can’t fathom.
The curlew swoops, night-cloaked and haunting
Joyfully spiralling upward in tone
Calling me to linger
Calling me to wonder
Calling me to see.
NaPoWriMo Day 9: Egg Hunt
Time to get cracking
Climb out of sleep bagging
Put down all the packing
And get on the hunt!
The Easter Bun’s been
And we’ve already seen
A gold-blue silver sheen
Glinting out of the grass.
Little hands take the lead
Running hard through the weeds
While the grownups sip mead
And the treasures amass.
Pile of eggs, rabbits, sweets
Unexpected neat treats
Backed by hypersonic squeaks
Mama’s ears take the brunt!
Silence falls on the field
That was kind enough to yield
Chocolate treasure that reeled
Our little kids’ minds.
We’re in awe as they tuck
Into chocolate, drunk
From the pleasure they took
From their Easter Hunt finds.
NaPoWriMo Day 8: A Naming
Image copyright Mabh Savage 2023. Image ID: Green grass and bright blue sky with a few small white clouds seen through the mesh window of a tent.
We stood before the gods and named him
Parents, sponsors, family, friends, and tribe
They held him gently and firmly
Safe and loved
Rounding the circle
With bread and mead
His brother spoke loud and sweet
Melting our hearts
While we played our parts
Committing ourselves to this
Still tiny life.
A naming before the quarters
A naming before the elements
A naming before the stones, grass, and sky.
NaPoWriMo Day 7: Finding Tribe
Image copyright Mabh Savage 2023. Image ID: Trees silhouetted against a starry night sky.
We come together in the great field
Some linked by blood
Many not
But all in joy
And canvas
And love of the fire
We laugh and cry and hold each other tight
Some close calls this past winter
Yet we’re all still here
I watch the moon rise
Listen to snores
Shuffles
Whispers and giggles
I nod to Lokabrenna
Torch of Skytreader
Transformational one who reminds us
Of joy, hold onto joy…
Grateful for the home
We always have.
NaPoWriMo Day 6: Pizza
Image copyright Mabh Savage 2023. Image ID: A little girl putting olives on a pizza seen from above.
We make pizza together
Her intensity
Practically melting the cheese
Before the oven is even on
I grate, it’s great
Her words not mine
A punner like her mother
Funny already, at only five
She wants olives
What five-year-old asks for olives?
This one…
Plus an egg
To make eyes and a smile…
She already did.
NaPoWriMo Day 5: Salsa
Image copyright Mabh Savage 2022. Image ID: Two white ramekins on a wooden chopping board, the left one has peach coloured sauce in and the right one has green sauce and a metal spoon in.
Tapping around the kitchen
Toe tapping heel tapping good
Flavour pouring
From fingers cold yet nimble
April frosts still hanging on
Cailleach peering through the window
But get this tapping
Rhythm in the soul
Pots and pans and
Slots for spices, herbs, mix it up
Throw those potatoes
Make that sauce
La Salsa
Salsa verde
Salsa rojo
Beating to the eating
Straight from heart to plate.
NaPoWriMo Day 4: Listing
Image from Openverse. Image ID: An open, spiral-bound notebook on a wooden surface.
Listing to the side
Writing
Checking
Apping
Wording
Nouns to verbs
Tick box
Doom box
Lockbox
Lock it up
Have you tried a notebook?
Have you tried keeping lists?
Have you tried a planner?
The door of my doom room
Creaks and burst
Empty planners spilling
Flooding out into the house
And my ship lists sideways.
NaPoWriMo Day 3: Moon Shock
Image copyright Mabh Savage 2023. Image ID: Clouds surrounding the moon, lit up from behind, over a street of residential houses.
Walking along the front
We chatter like magpies
Black and white in the evening light
Caught between sea spray and coal dust
Then I look up
Moon shock
Cloud-framed portal
Unreal and beyond strange
Above the mundane street
The houses fall away
The shore a distant dream
As liminality is no longer
Land, sea, and sky
But moon, clouds, and why.
NaPoWriMo Day 2: Chicken
Playing catch-up and posting my poems late!
Image copyright Mabh Savage 2023. Image ID: A man in a blue coat, jeans, and grey hat facing away from the camera watching the ocean over a white railing.
He plays chicken with the ocean
Calmly strolling along the promenade
While waves beat a samba
Up the sea wall.
He looks back
And disappears behind a wall of white
Foamy assassin,
Hiding my surely drenched spouse
The surging arm of the ocean slaps down
Dragging its salty palm back to the beach
He grins back at me
Ground sodden
Him lightly sprayed
As if two fists of the sea
Had ground into the concrete
On either side of him
A wall punched in frustration
With no intent to harm
You lucky bastard
I mouth, and grin back
As the sea stretches deep
And lunges again.
NaPoWriMo Day One: Hornsea Mist
The mist over the sea comes in hard
White fuzz, silencing the horizon
While the shoreline cracks and hammers
Wave after wave of angry
Turning tide.
The town gathers anyway
Braving the blustery spittle
High-vis high octane madness:
Carts and coats and concerts
Singing gutsy enough
To drown out the gravel tipped teeth
Of the sea.
Still the mist encroaches
Like a bubble
Closing in
Winter’s last hurrah
But we sing in Spring
Melodious, proud: warm.
Mabh Savage 