The Hare

On Sat Feb 28th, eve of the mad hare month, I and some friends were driving to Wigmore Abbey in Herefordshire where the a capella group The Polisumi Sisters were to'premiere' one of my poems in song at a concert in aid of the Red Cross. A hare ran across our path and crouched on the verge for a while and I thought of lines by Hilary Llewellyn-Williams: "moonlight silvering her closecropped fur" from a poem called "The Innocent Hare", only it was our headlights silvering the fur not the moon. But it was a beautiful moment, the kind of moment that brings a lump to the throat. Another lump rose in my throat when, later, I heard my poem "Sometimes" sung by the group and accompanied by the dulcimer; for a while I couldn't speak, the singing gave the poem an intense poignancy I wasn't prepared for. To hear your own work sung, as you sit in candle and firelight, under massive oak beams, with shadows dancing on the thick stone walls around you - well....how lucky! There is no doubt in my mind that the hare is indeed magical.