What do the bells of All Saints say
On this cold spring day?
Is it “repent?”
Or a lament,
A sighing
For a civilisation that is dying?
I can not say.
—
The above poem was inspired by me hearing the bells of All Saints Church, as I passed through the churchyard on the morning of Sunday 5th May 2019). You can find All Saints Upper Norwood here, http://www.allsaintsuppernorwood.co.uk/).
You cleaned your teeth
And came to bed.
I remember not
What was said.
But talk is cheap
Though not so diamond rings
And other things
Of which we shall not speak.
When a young person named Dan
Threatened me with a frying Pan,
And said, “you will die!”,
I offered him some pie,
Which mollified that young man named Dan.
You and me
Drinking wine on my settee,
Both of us knowing
Where this was going
For we had nowhere at all
Left to fall
When a young man named More
Said, “my love she is pure.
We met last night
Under a winking red light,
I said, “my friend, are you sure?”
“You enjoyed your run today”,
I say.
And one day
Your run will be done
My faithful old canine,
While the sun
Will still shine
On mine.
Our civilisation is just
As these flowers I touch,
Bright petals and dust.
A cricket ball
Did fall
Into a pristine
Village stream
And was swept away.
And the squire of yesterday
Counted the cost
Of a cricket ball,
Forever lost
This tree
In the churchyard
With it’s gnarled bark
Will outlast me.
This thought, to some stark
Comforts me
For my heart
Is part
Of this self-same tree.
When a young lady named Dawn
Danced in a field of corn,
The farmer called Giles
Danced on the stiles
And thus their love was born.
K Morris - Poet 