A chaffinch in a tree
of cherry sings merrily
spring's introit.

Its blazing bobble dwells
in leaves, alive, and swells
in scarlet.

The flowers are flares of white.
The chaffinch has gone quiet
and turned sky-gazer.

My eyes close on the day:
an orb revolves in grey
and red and azure.

Poet and artist Bohuslav Reynek spent most of his life in the relative obscurity of the Czech-Moravian Highlands; although he suffered at the hands of the Communist regime, he cannot be numbered among the dissident poets of Eastern...