‘Past dandelions already gone to seed and summer grasses’
Summer Grasses
By Ken Cockburn (from Floating the Woods)
Published by Luath Press
at Killerton we walked in silence
past dandelions already gone to seed
and summer grasses
at Knightshayes we walked in silence
through memories of the buzzing airman’s crash
while blue dragonflies skimmed the fountain
at Lanhydrock we walked in silence
through formal Victorian gardens
and the newly mown graveyard
at Clovelly we walked in silence
through a greenwood
to a stony beach
at Overbeck’s we walked in silence
high above the blue bay
on the afternoon of the longest day
at Castle Drogo we walked in silence
past dismantled parapets
into the orchard
at Stourhead we walked in silence
through ‘The Shades’
and descended to the lake
at Croft Castle we walked in silence
from a welcome frustrated by war
to a doubly unwelcome return
at Dunham Massey we walked in silence
along the towpath to the Rope and Anchor
where the horses were commandeered
at the Hardmans’ House we walked in silence
through the cathedral’s complexities
and the bombed-out church, open to angelic skies
at Penrhyn Castle we walked in silence
away from cyclopean gothic
into unforgiving heat
at Nostell Priory we walked in silence
to the ha-ha where the music
carried, just
at Attingham Park we walked in silence
beneath the motto of the deserving rich
to Eada’s only church
at Chirk Castle we walked in silence
past a rustic Orpheus
and a blindfold nymph
at Dudmaston we walked in silence
under apple-boughs
where kids were fighting over windfalls
at Ormesby Hall we walked in silence
from shell-shocked refugees
to prosperous suburbia
at Osterley Park we walked in silence
past Adam’s transparent portico
and the Army Service Corps Mechanical Transport Depot
at Ightham Mote we walked in silence
on a right-of-way across private land
to a saintless church of the Commonwealth
at Ashridge we walked in silence
on land scarred with practice trenches
remnant deer glimpsed in the woods
at Whipsnade we walked in silence
between holly-hedge and mesh-fence
to a porch of oaks and a nave of limes
at Nymans we walked in silence
until it was broken by
a proprietorial thank you
at Bateman’s we walked in silence
to a memorial naming the dead
who kept dying long after the war was over
at the White Cliffs of Dover we walked in silence
past holm oaks and seakale
relishing life at the edge
Floating the Woods by Ken Cockburn is published by Luath Press and is available now priced £8.99.
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