The woodland way with twists and turns
Flanked either side by brush and ferns
The ground is hard through days of drought
With moulded horse’s hooves about
Impressed upon the sun-baked clay
For this is too a bridle way
The ash and oaks tower way up high
They seem almost to touch the sky
Holly grows between the trees
Unruffled by the gentle breeze
The dappled light mosaics the ground
And birdsong is the only sound
I know not where the pathway ends
Incessantly it winds and wends
Yet now a blaze of light ahead
As open fields before me spread
Rows of wheat and golden rape
Dominate a farm landscape
Travelling onwards for more miles
Climbing over wooden stiles
And opening easier kissing gates
Avoiding private land estates
Along a river’s sodden edges
Grow long stemmed and tufted sedges
But now my summer walk complete
A pleasure I will soon repeat
For surely, I could never find
A better means to clear the mind
Surrounded thus by Nature’s splendour
A country walk has no contender