Satisfactions Of An Early Riser Poem by Roger Hudson

Satisfactions Of An Early Riser - Phoenix Park

Antlers of fallow deer
Extrude eerily above white shroud
Of autumn ground mist
Fantasy Vikings stealthily invading
The new day
To distant roars of waking hippos
Declaring hunger
To weary zoo warders

Summer sunrise spotlights
Two lone joggers
Early-rising walker
Pacing out quadrant
Of green-glowing park
Pausing in huddled Celtic grove
To hug trees for comfort
Commune with earth goddess
To morning birdsong

Before, seated in just open café,
Return to excitement of re-inventing Ancient Athens
for new novel
when not distracted by play
of sunlight and shade
in fluttering leaves outside

Satisfactions of an Early Riser - Smithfield Fruit & Veg Market

In winter dark
Dodge through mechanical ballet
Of delivery trucks and forklifts
To tune of beeping horns
Revving engines
Reversing gears
Warning alarms
And human shouts
As blue of daylight
Gradually merges and conquers
Harsh orange glow of neon street lights
In receding black of night
To be conquered in turn
By light of rising sun creeping slowly

Downwards
Down roof statues
Down Victorian ornate tiles
Picking out more and more detail
Revealing harsh-seeming colours
Of new-piled fruit and flowers
Till market restored
To full daily bustle of trade
Take refuge in working men's café
For full greasy Irish
Head into proofs
Checking for faults, plot-holes, repetitions
While urban life
Gears up to daytime pace outside