The Stormcock – a poem by Elizabeth Barton

The Stormcock

The night you died,
you planted an acorn in my heart. 
At first, I thought the ache

of all the unsaid words
would choke me 
but the seed was patient —

I watered it with my grief, 
warmed it with the sunlight 
of my longing. 

Spring came, 
a taproot anchored my loss, 
a sapling grew, leaves

opened their wings in my mouth. 
An oak tree flourished
in my head,

songbirds nested there,
the ones that do not fear the dark
and from the highest branch 

I heard a mistle thrush —
it sang through wind,
rain, thunder. 

Elizabeth Barton’s debut poetry pamphlet, If Grief were a Bird, was published by Agenda Editions in 2022. She was a prizewinner in the Shelley Memorial Poetry Competition 2023 and was Highly Commended in the Ver Poets Open Competition 2024. Her poetry has been published in journals such as Agenda, Acumen, Mslexia, The High Window and the podcast Poetry Worth Hearing. She is Stanza rep for Mole Valley Poets and editor of their anthology.