Fetcham

Over recent days I have been down in London. I was there first and foremost to give a reading for the charity Kids for Kids. They help struggling villages in the Darfur region to support themselves; each year they adopt more and more communities. The reading was what I like to call an inter-melding of music and words: I was joined by a professional violinist and pianist and our performance was at Leatherhead School.

Over the days I stayed with friends in Fetcham close to Leatherhead. During the time that I was there Bonfire Night was celebrated. Where I live at the heart of Highland Perthshire not much is made of this; traditionally Hallowe'en has been of far greater importance, though during recent years that has been changing. Of course both are equally exciting to children.

The other thing I'm not used to here in Highland Perthshire is the fox. That may sound almost extraordinary; I am surrounded by high hills, glens and open fields - it's country that was almost tailor-made for foxes. But the estates have a ruthless grip on the population; I've very seldom seen a red-coated gentleman in all the years I've lived here. Paradoxically enough, they're two a penny in the London area.

This poem was written through the night. I was roused out of sleep by a fox; by the barking of a fox that continued for perhaps five minutes. During that time the first draft of the poem was written. It's the best possible time to write: you're unselfconscious about the process, and somehow the words are able to flow more freely. This is dedicated to Sylvia and Richard, my good hosts over my days in England.

Fetcham

November 5th and the whole night huge;
I woke and a fox's voice was rasping
over the gardens and the sculpted woods,
at two in the morning and the world asleep.

That night the skies had bloomed with fireworks,
burst and fluttered till they fell back dark;
the parties over and the lights put out,
the doors all clicked and the streets left still.

When I woke up the night was full,
a silver brilliance with the moon's ship high;
the great sky shining and the stars red fires,
and the rasp and the rasp of a fox's bark.