Acorn Bank, Temple Sowerby – Wednesday 24th August 2011

by Geoff Smith
(Carlisle, Cumbria, UK)

A medlar, boughs bearing fruit
Leaning down, reaching the mown grass
The walled garden, pear trees, apple orchard
Fruit bearing trees espaliered against
Walls warmed by a soft sun and mist
Refracting the light, rainbowed
Against Cumbrian sandstone

These ancient trees, their fruits
Carrying the genome of the orchard’s
History, light, dark, summer, winter
The mellow fruitfulness of Keats poetry
A garden planned, designed, carried
Forwards across days, years

Knights Templar occupied these desmenes
Now holiday apartments, welcome crowds
Of summer visitors, soup and sandwiches
In the tea room, no grand lunches
Or dinners, only the echoes of a single
Horse carrying two knights into battle

Today the mower buzzing into
An August afternoon, the herbs, scenting
Chaste women, marjoram, willow herb
Crossing the camomile lawn, each footstep
Scented with the steps you took through
Woodland to the mills wheel transforming the corn
Into the true flour baked into the bread
Broken over lunch into communion's friendship