Cuckoo Rock

Crossing over the Clapper Bridge,
Heading for Cuckoo Rock
Peering inside potato caves,
Woodpeckers taking stock

Of what’s been left in the Blowing House
Left of Tinner’s Mill
Where singing nettles and bracken
Sing to the magpie still:

Sometimes you may see them
Sometimes you may not
Keep your eyes wide open
They’re difficult to spot

Then call to the crow and the jayfly
Yaffle at the Yaffling Tree,
Follow the swallow tomorrow
Bring back tomorrow to me

As today and the rest of the week
Lie there in granite and heather
Lie and remain in the bluebell gorse
Lie there in all kinds of weather:

And sometimes you may see it
Sometimes you may not
Keep your eyes wide open
It’s difficult to spot

As hard to find as the finger sign
On the hand of the talking clock,
Crossing over the Clapper Bridge
Heading for Cuckoo Rock.

Copyright: from Cuckoo Rock (Salt, 2010), © Philip Bowen 2010, used by permission of the author

More about this poem

Phil reads in different ways to suit the rhythm and mood, from sing-song rhymes with playful pacing to scarier tones which help bring ...

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About Cuckoo Rock

"The best way I can describe the poems in Cuckoo Rock is that they're set in a fantasy landscape with various bizarre creatures, added to some knockabout musical characters who provide a sort of comic relief."

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