1.
Beside the clear brook
Where Rossetti walked with Jane;
Green reeded and banked with wild flowers,
Fit for an Ophelia’s song;
We strode through the rich grass in our sweat-shop shoes,
Talking too much,
Like guilty men who knew their wrong.
The span of generations passed in a glance
At the sun-honeyed stones set against the blazing sky;
Long ago there was a vision of chivalry and romance,
That filled this glowing garden and manor house close by
With inspirations and creations as eternal as Avalon.
2.
Summer.
The river became the silver Arno in a mirage of hazy gleaming;
A cool white hand lolled from the boat in its gilded water,
Softly afloat in Oxfordshire,
With Florence downstream dreaming.
Capture the fleeting look with lines on paper,
Punctuated or shaded,
Beneath the trees of dark English root;
Don’t move.
Pocket-watches passing hours till the rose evening;
Dressing and dinner and verse and wine,
And dark velvet shadows
Thick beyond the candlelight,
As mysterious as the ticking of time.
© 2016-2017 Paul Carpenter
Extract from Paul’s book “Homecoming”
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Paul Carpenter - Poet 