Uploaded November 2020 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
AUGUST WALK
By P B Taylor
I
I went for a walk
Down a stony, grassed road
Birds too high above me
Flying into that quick settling sun
My darkness had escaped
And that time had now come
To leave the field and county
Where in winter it sometime snowed
II
The buzzing warm stupidity
Of idle flies had now passed
Those gnats like a force field
With no reason clung together
A cornfield where I spent the day
Still cold and fast asleep- another
Reminder of the incoming dark
Approached far too fast
III
As I turned quickly, to retrace
My marked footsteps, I thought
This would be a last visit
To the field down the road
As that with my girlfriend
Somberly, that hot night before
I realised that the evenings died
That my time was too short
To understand and to appreciate
The beauty of an August nature
The field wildlife: that road goes on
Forever more (in my thoughts)
Amersham/Little Chalfont. 21st August 1973
Phillip Taylor MBE was born in Amersham and educated at London University and the Inns of Court School of Law. His working life was spent, firstly at the BBC in London, in the Ministry of Defence and the Army, and then as a barrister at law and mediator at Lincoln’s Inn after he was called to the Bar.
He was Chairman of the Society of Civil Service Authors Poetry Workshop from 1982 to 1986 and contributed to their annual anthology FOCUS. His poems and short stories have appeared in journals, magazines and newsletters and some have been broadcast by the BBC. He has produced several poetry collections since 1972.
The Poetry Workshop was founded by Bill Barnes in 1970. It was a part of the Society of Civil Service Authors (founded in 1935) which now known as the Society of Civil and Public Service Writers.
AUGUST WALK
By P B Taylor
I
I went for a walk
Down a stony, grassed road
Birds too high above me
Flying into that quick settling sun
My darkness had escaped
And that time had now come
To leave the field and county
Where in winter it sometime snowed
II
The buzzing warm stupidity
Of idle flies had now passed
Those gnats like a force field
With no reason clung together
A cornfield where I spent the day
Still cold and fast asleep- another
Reminder of the incoming dark
Approached far too fast
III
As I turned quickly, to retrace
My marked footsteps, I thought
This would be a last visit
To the field down the road
As that with my girlfriend
Somberly, that hot night before
I realised that the evenings died
That my time was too short
To understand and to appreciate
The beauty of an August nature
The field wildlife: that road goes on
Forever more (in my thoughts)
Amersham/Little Chalfont. 21st August 1973
Phillip Taylor MBE was born in Amersham and educated at London University and the Inns of Court School of Law. His working life was spent, firstly at the BBC in London, in the Ministry of Defence and the Army, and then as a barrister at law and mediator at Lincoln’s Inn after he was called to the Bar.
He was Chairman of the Society of Civil Service Authors Poetry Workshop from 1982 to 1986 and contributed to their annual anthology FOCUS. His poems and short stories have appeared in journals, magazines and newsletters and some have been broadcast by the BBC. He has produced several poetry collections since 1972.
The Poetry Workshop was founded by Bill Barnes in 1970. It was a part of the Society of Civil Service Authors (founded in 1935) which now known as the Society of Civil and Public Service Writers.
