Thursday 12 September 2019

There are some holy places

What makes a holy place ?
Is it a church  or or a mosque ?
Is it an ancient tomb of our far distant ancestors?
Is it a special wild place - a sacred grove or quiet cove
There is one place that has all this

I know an island,  rich in farmland,
but where the bones of the earth  show through.
Here and there are the stones raised up
This for a reason we don't know,
These are a burial chamber for an ancient community
These for the great King
These make a village from when Claudius was emperor


These make a church  made by Padrig
and these one for Tyslio
and these make a Ty Ddu




These fold and twist to make beds for the seals
these washed smooth by the sea trap the waters of the lagoon
These old and strange, still hidden,
supports love's island,   these make the lighthouse.

Here the stone is crushed and washed  into a sandy cove,
Here the great shifting sands are trapped beneath Marram and Pine
and somehow hold rich lakes




Here the risen stones  enclose the holy spring
and the monks church


Here the still resting  rock make the cliffs for
Bran Coesgoch to dance over in summer and shelter
on the greensward for winter

Here the stones were ripped from the
earth, torn, broken. destroyed, burnt  for the metal, the colour of my nieces hair
other colours still stain the great pit  and the dead ponds still squarely
lie at the foot of the hill

This is a Holy place, this is a sacred home,
a place that gives sustenance to many
a place that hold magic spaces
a place that shelters its people
a place that ordinary lives are lived in

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