Sweet come the misty morning in September
Among the dewy paths 'tis sweet to stray
Greensward or stubbles as I well remember
I have done & the mist it curleth grey

Follow me for daily #JohnClare postings.
#photography #poetry #environment #painting #bookbinding #chapbooks

#AYearForArt #ArtMatters #LoveArt #Photography #poetry #The environment #painting #bookbinding

#JohnClare watching the swallows.

I love to drop in summer on the grass
& with unwearied eye mark pleasing things
To see the gadding swallow gaily pass
Crumping the quiet lake with dipping wings
& list the restless cuckoo while it sings
In distant trees—& nigh hand in the wood
That skirts its shadow oer my mossy seat
I love that pleasant russling noise to meet

Image: #CarryAkroyd

#AYearForArt #ArtMatters #LoveArt #Photography #poetry #environment

Walking with #JohnClare - the book is £7 by the way (from me).

We feel at once shut out from sun & sky
All the deliciousness of solitude
While sauntering noisless oer the leafy ground
The air we breath seems loosing every trace
Of earth & all its trouble & the mind
Yearns for a dwelling in so sweet a place
From troubles noise such stillness seemeth bye

#AYearForArt #ArtMatters #LoveArt #Photography #poetry #environment #painting

#JohnClare back in the fens.

With boots of monstrous leg & massy strength
The fowler journeys on his weary way
With furry cap & gun of monstrous length
He hunts the reedy forest for his prey
The timid wild duck vainly hurries by,
& when the wild goose droves their place proclaim
He stands behind his horse & gathers nigh
Who scorn to fear & fly from beast so lame

#AYearForArt #ArtMatters #LoveArt #Photography #poetry #environment

#JohnClare … ‘Trees - In a strange stillness’ … my book published in 2018.

How sweet to be thus nestling deep in boughs
Upon an ashen stoven pillowing me
Faintly are heard the ploughmen at their ploughs
But near an eye can find its way to see
The sun beams scarce molest me wi a smile
So thick the leafy armies gather round
& where they do the breeze blows cool the while
Their leafy shadows dancing on the ground

#AYearForArt #ArtMatters #LoveArt #Photography #poetry #environment

#JohnClare strolling along the stream.

Still shingling on thy silty bed
Wi gurgling windings play
While musing on thy banks I tread
On memory[s] happy day
When mary milkd her brinded cow
While sky larks did sing clear
& for her sake thats absent now
Thou fountain thou art dear

#JohnClare wrote this 200 years ago…

#AYearForArt #ArtMatters #LoveArt #Photography #poetry #environment #painting #bookbinding

#JohnClare the very first #environmentalist.

Old favourite tree art thou too fled the scene
Could not the ax thy clining age delay
& let thee stretch thy shadows oer the green
& let thee dye in picturesque decay
What hadst thou done to meet a tyrants frown
Be dragd a captive from thy native wood
What was the cause the raige that hewd thee down
Small value was the ground on which thou stood

#AYearForArt #ArtMatters #LoveArt #Photography #poetry #environment #painting #bookbinding

#JohnClare walking in May

& the breezes feather feet
Crimping oer the waters sweet
Trembling fans the sun tand cheek
& gives the comfort one woud seek
Stretching there in soft repose
Far from peace & freedoms foes
Spots so still so wild so rude
Dear to meet thee solitude

#AYearForArt #ArtMatters #LoveArt #Photography #poetry #environment #painting #bookbinding

#JohnClare and the crow. Painting by my friend #CarryAkroyd

In blackening droves the rook & crow
Flap the cold air with heavy wings
To seek what home will not bestow
As soon as morn the summons brings
Full many a weary mile they flye
To try what stranger fields will spare
Till eve returns her freezing sky
Then wearied to their homes repair

#AYearForArt #ArtMatters #LoveArt #Photography #poetry #environment #painting #bookbinding

#JohnClare footpath walking…

Theres somthing rich & joyful to the mind 

To view through close & field those crooked shreds 

Of footpaths that most picturesqly wind 

From town to town or some tree hidden sheds 

Where lonely cottager lifes peace enjoys 

Far far from strife & all its troubled noise 

The pent up artizan by pleasure led 

Along their winding ways right glad employs

#AYearForArt #ArtMatters #LoveArt #Photography #poetry #environment #painting #bookbinding

#JohnClare and wasps

Natures sweet bard of spring the sable bee
Hums round each cottage wall its minstrelsy
& the gay wasp in its stript jacket comes
To sunny banks in terryfying hums
Waking the herd boys fears that ramble nigh
& threatning vengance to each passer bye

Swarthy yet lovly by each zepher fan'd
As the soft cheek of milkmaids summer tan'd

#AYearForArt #ArtMatters #LoveArt #Photography #poetry #environment

#JohnClare speaking truth... in 1827

This life is made of lying & grimace
This world is filled with whoring & decieving
Hypocrisy ne'er masks an honest face
Story's are told—but seeing is believing
& I've seen much from which there's no retrieving
I've seen deception take the place of truth
I've seen knaves flourish—& the country grieving
Lies was the current gospel in my youth
& now a man—I'm farther off from truth

#AYearForArt #ArtMatters #LoveArt #Photography #poetry #environment #painting #bookbinding

#JohnClare on May Day

The spring has brought its blessing love
& daiseys deck the lea
Both green & grove is dressing love
In sweetest smiles for thee
I view your beauty sleeping love
So sweet & innoscent
& if your sleep Im breaking love
Wi but a harmless kiss
Lets hope ye wornt at waking love
Such trifles take amiss

#AYearForArt #ArtMatters #LoveArt #Photography #poetry #environment #painting #bookbinding

#JohnClare the first environmentalist / 2

How beautifull the morning blue
& light o nearly grey
Each herb & flower is wet wi’ dew
Where toil begins the day
The crimson curtains o’ the sky
Already turns to dun
& burning over heads o kye
The skylark hails the sun

#AYearForArt #ArtMatters #LoveArt #Photography #poetry #environment

#JohnClare in pensive mood.

The wind of that eternal ditty sings,
Humming of future things, that burn the mind
To leave some fragment of itself behind.

John clare - The Shepherds Tree
Photos by my friend Mike Hobson.

#AYearForArt #ArtMatters #LoveArt #Photography #poetry #environment

#JohnClare the first environmentalist

All nature has a feeling: woods, fields, brooks
Are life eternal; and in silence they
Speak happiness beyond the reach of books;
There's nothing mortal in them; their decay
Is the green life of change; to pass away
And come again in blooms revivified.
Its birth was heaven, eternal is its stay,
And with the sun and moon shall still abide
Beneath their day and night and heaven wide.

#ayearforart #ArtMatters #LoveArt #Photography #poetry #environment #painting #bookbinding

Yes, even #JohnClare tried his hand at ‘gothic’ writing in the 1820s. The book? My collection of some of his gothic poetry.

http://arboureditions1.blogspot.com/p/gothic-literature-is-often-described.html

#AYearForArt #ArtMatters #LoveArt #Photography #poetry #environment #painting #bookbinding

‘The Lovers Meeting’ by #JohnClare handmade book.

Hot was the noon in summers sultry hour
The sun then raging with meridian power
When I more burning with the scorching heat
Of hot desire—lay hid in close retreat
Beneath the covert of a secret shade
Flush'd ‘with expectance of the lovley maid’
Sweet was the spot no one throughout the grove
Was better suited to the sports of Love

#AYearForArt #ArtMatters #LoveArt #Photography #poetry #environment #painting #bookbinding

A commemorative #JohnClare stamp issued by the UK Post Office…

Twas love & pleasure all along
I felt that I'd a right to song
& sung—but in a timid strain
Of fondness for my native plain
For everything I felt a love
The weeds below the birds above
& weeds that bloomed in summers hours
I thought they should be reckoned flowers