In Between by Richard Martin

It's all in the spaces,
the emptiness between buildings,
the transparent air
that holds the trees in place –
where true action: flight, diving,
gliding, takes place,
in the spaces –
the twisting turns
of a flight of pigeons;
two magpies hurl themselves
between fir and pine,
and a solitary crow
dives from nowhere
into the thicket of a hedge.
That's why I can so often ignore
the interruption of a block of flats,
or the intrusion of grey siding --
what's truly interesting
hovers in between.



Richard Martin is an English writer who lives in the Netherlands close to the point where Belgium, Germany and Holland meet. After retiring as a university teacher in Germany, he turned his attention to writing, and has published three collections of poetry and numerous poems in magazines in England, the US, and Austria.