I am thrilled to bring you poetry from the talented pen of Kerry Darbishire over the next three editions. Based in the Lake District, in north-west England, Kerry has been widely published, including a collection A Lift Of Wings (Indigo Dreams, 2014) and a forthcoming collection with Hedgehog Press. Thank you for sharing your poetry with us at The Rainbow Poems, dear Kerry!

Belief

And I step out into the New Year carrying a cup of birdseed.
Robins, blue tits and goldcrests gather on the bare arms

of damson branches waiting for me to spread breakfast then
go away, like my father did many times, leaving me

between my mother’s hunger and his emptiness, where
it all began. That night their muffled voices I never understood

and I tiptoed from my bedroom along the icy-linoleum hallway
to open the winter-heavy door, stand and breathe in

the lonely hour, scent of pines, owls hunting above the snow-
filled village, believing the air was new and everything would change.

Blossom buds stir, I know sap is rising and through today’s pewter
sky – clouds are giving way to new warmth.