Doreen Hinchliffe

Blackheath, SE London

Biography: Doreen’s poems have appeared in a wide variety of poetry magazines, including Mslexia, Magma, Acumen and Orbis. She has published two poetry collections – Dark Italics, (Indigo Dreams, 2017) and Substantial Ghosts, (Oversteps Books, 2020). Her first novel, Sarabande in Blue, was recently published by Blossom Spring Publishing.

The poem was written on 28^th April 2020.

Lockdown, April 2020.

Silent skies, deserted roads, the sound

of birdsong and a firmament as blue

and clear as, once, it used to be. Around

the parks and gardens, flowers show their true

colours, their delicate shades intensified

by April sun and unpolluted air.

The world seems kinder. Less preoccupied,

we talk to passing strangers, keen to share

our sense of a new order, a different way

of living. Back home, we let the silence fall

about us, learn to listen more each day.

Locked in this extended pause, when all

our confident assumptions lie in tatters,

we’re forced to think about what really matters.