A Suggestion of Wrens by Annie Kissack
NEW - published Nov 2025
The latest selection of poetry from Annie Kissack, fifth Manx Bard.
Paperback, A5
A Suggestion of Wrens
All the yellow leaves have dropped by now,
the hawthorn’s thinning,
fuchsia lingers brown.
Outlined sharp on the gate for a blink,
a wren glimpsed through glass
where early sun strikes sycamore.
One wren, much fluttering, might there be more?
New light makes new shapings,
shadow passing places,
ivy pathways, tunnels busy
with the dash of small birds.
New light presses upon old bark,
makes visible the wings
that flit through crisscross canvas.
There she is on the broad branch,
the crooked branch, the gate again,
her rumours in the ivy, her quiverings
in long grass below the hedge.
Is it the one wren only or the suggestion of many
that disconcerts my morning mind,
conjures up those tiny phantoms
darting out from sleep?
Annie Kissack