all that remains

 

 

 

 

all that remains

of the dying day

is

one last

brilliant

sunlit ray

 

 

 

 

monks walk

 

  

monks walk

past 

this house

in silence

 

from the churchyard

grave boned

across the muddy field

cowled

in single file

 

monks walk past this house

a millennium  march

save no-one but me sees them

processing hooded

 

monks walk past this house

and I follow

in their wake

step by step

in time

 

 

 

winterscape - poor elizabeth

 

 

poor elizabeth is cold

in a winter's day landscape

with fleeting clouds

and a drizzle

that leaches into your bones 

 

poor elizabeth lies deep beneath the soil

in a churchyard

somewhere in England 

her headstone black with lichen

poor elizabeth is a shadowy glance

in a frosted puddle

of

time

poor elizabeth is a loose ball of hay

or a cast of stickes

stranded in the road

poor elizabeth is cold

in a winter's day landscape

and she is dissolving

before our eyes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

a knock on the door

 

 

 

  

A month or two ago there was a knock at our door. A charming grey-haired lady called Susan introduced herself and asked if she could take some photos outside our home. She told us she had been born here.

 

We invited her and her friend inside and over a cup of coffee she told us the sad story of how she came to leave. Her father died tragically early, aged just thirty five. He's buried in the churchyard just down the road from us.

 

Her mother was so grief-stricken she took Susan, her younger sister and her baby brother to the States to stay with family there. Six months later they returned, but her mother was so heart-broken she couldn't bear to live in the house again. She sold it, contents and all.

We showed her round the house and told her to take as many photos as she wanted. About an hour later she left.

What a lovely lady! It was such a pleasure to meet her, even if the circumstances of her visit were sad. And then, to our delight we received in a message from Susan some lovely black and white photos of happier times. I'm showing these below with her kind permission and in honour of her family.