I wake in the drunken, first light.
Heady in the peppered acres of the sky
is redness.

<a data-snax-placeholder="Source" class="snax-figure-source" href="https://pixabay.com/en/sunrise-destination-finger-lake-2761784/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">https://pixabay.com/en/sunrise-destination-finger-lake-2761784/</a>
Lawns are crowing out of night,
the red-roofed stable rising,
lower at this hour
than moon – flint shadows sleeping there
like shaded continents of maps.
A rich, wild blueness heavies
and apples the sun
in hoards, in autumn

<a href="https://pixabay.com/en/the-fog-landscape-morning-poland-2723356/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Source</a>
rising from the river, mists of perch and roach.
These chickens rushing to the opening of windows!

<a href="https://pixabay.com/en/chicken-hen-poultry-pinnate-2692017/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Source</a>
Not the same river! There are at least three River Stours in England, with the Dorset one being the one I know best, as I grew up not far from where it flows past Wimborne on its way to Christchurch Harbour.
It’s a beautiful river. As a fisherman, rivers are some of the most imaginative waterlands!
Awesome.
Thanks for the appreciative comment. That’s many thanks.
A rich warm slathering of words! This is a treat: “A rich, wild blueness heavies and apples the sun”
“…slathering of words” – that’s great in itself! Many thanks!
I enjoyed the poem more on subsequent readings. There’s so much in there 🙂
Well, many thanks, and, yes, poems often need returning to. There’s a lot of piled stuff in there…
Beautiful imagery and words.
Thank you for your kind comment.
Many thanks.
Dorset or Suffolk?
Suffolk, though it was almost forty years ago now! I still remember the beauty of that river. Am I right about Suffolk? I think so. Does the Stour run through Dorset, too? Suppose so. (Too lazy to go to Google!) Many thanks for your interest.