Bio
Phil Vernon lives with his wife Tebo in Kent in the UK, where he returned in 2004 after spending two decades in different parts of Africa. He works in the international humanitarian and peacebuilding field. His version of the mediaeval hymn Stabat Mater with music by Nicola Burnett Smith has been performed in the UK and internationally. 'This Quieter Shore', a micro-collection, was published by Hedgehog Poetry Press in 2018; a full collection 'Poetry After Auschwitz' was published by Sentinel in 2020; and a second collection, 'Watching the Moon Landing', was published by Hedgehog in 2022. He has just completed a new cycle of poems about conflict, peace and place, entitled 'Guerrilla Country'. www.philvernon.net/category/poetry. @philvernon2.
Phil Vernon
Good intentions
Last springtime, entering the garden shed
for bamboo, string and tools,
I frightened a robin who'd nested inside.
Her perfect eggs grew cold.
This year, when choosing pots for planting
summer bulbs I'd found,
I nudged a hidden nest and tipped its
five smooth eggs to the ground.
I leave ivy unpruned and lawn unmown,
let last year's leaf fall lie,
fill feeders with suet, nuts and seeds,
so garden wildlife thrive.
But a robin deserts a discovered nest
and fills the air with her distress:
so it's better, by far, when it comes to the birds,
to simply stay out of their world.