Sheer Delight

Movies liked by me only means I have peace
to sit alone instead of watching general TV,
with Fantasia for company I am free to put
up my feet and balance the laptop on my
knees as the wooden school desk is too
cold, and feast my eyes on things I love

Watching Walt Disney fairies covering flowers
with glittering crystals, autumn fairies turning
leaves to gold, skating winter sprites catching
rides upon spinning ice crystals while my eyes
keep wandering to the filigree of the gilded
winter grass I had sneaked into the house

Then I admired the Edwardian Lady decorations
on page 29, a poem by Wordsworth in which he
laments what man has made of man; wondering
whether he meant proliferating laws destroying
general freedom, making all into criminals
on the basis of our basic instincts

Wordsworth knew birds and flowers enjoyed the
air they breathed, knew pleasure to be the holy
plan of nature, realised man was exiled from
his inner being and the sheer delight
of mere existence


The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, A facsimile
reproduction of a naturalist’s diary for 1906, printed by
Michael Joseph/Webb & Bower; 13th impression 1980
Page 29, Edith Holden copied by hand a poem by
W.Wordsworth, Lines Written In Early Spring