O Bheal Word Game of the Week

(This piece of Bad Poetry was inspired by a writing contest: http://www.obheal.ie/blog/five-words-poetry-competition/ . I have a rule about writing contests: No entry fees, ever. There is no charge for using the prompts. Some people who participate in the WithRealToads poem linkups do this one weekly. The site randomly throws out five words and challenges people to use them in poems.)

Wish for a wind, for a whisper of willows,

Rushes and redwings and rainbows (the fish),

Rippling long light lilting out through the shallows,

Damselflies dazzling and dainty (you wish).

Pollen of poplar and aspen, and petals

Bringing the butterflies, buzz of the bees,

Pallid and pretty it pleasantly settles,

Sifts over surfaces under the trees.

If you could only infuse summer evenings

Into a scent, you could bottle and keep

Haymaking, horses, heather, and hiking

Under a pillow to lull you to sleep.

Prop painting surface, supplies, on an easel;

Never has any paint summoned such green

Back under light through the bare winter’s trees; still,

Never despairing, paint what you have seen.

Bronze, brown, or burned, by the end of bright summer

Back to the bare boring city returned,

Locked under eyelids, long last you the glimmer

Of summer’s lesson in beauty you’ve learned.

(Before anyone quibbles: Is this poem about summer in Britain, or summer in North America? It's about whichever you like. Rainbow trout, native to North America, are farmed and released for sport fishing in Britain. "Redwings" refers to different birds in each country. "Heather" is an individual name that's been given to many animals and humans in North America.)