Another Poem

Doon Hill is near Dunbar, East Lothian - Joe and I visited in the summer of 2004.


Doon Hill

At the very top of the hill
I’m rooted to the spot
As time ceases
And all becomes still.

The deep hills stand behind me
Spotlighted by the sun,
Shadows protect the secret places
Where the wild creatures run.
Trees murmur to each other
The intrusion of a stranger,
And the sea spread out far below,
Flat and calm and blue.

Silence.

Until the cornfield nearby
Erupts with the song and flight
Of skylarks,
Disturbed
By something unseen.

Silence.

Apart from the hum of a thousand bees
Ecstatic in a banquet of clover
And concerned as I walk by,
Brushing the grass
As I walk the cement lines
That trace the place
Where a building once stood
In a different time.

Ages melt together – did they see
The skylarks and the bees,
Did they listen to the stillness
And feel the peace balm of this place?

© Sheena Conroy, 2005,
Celebrations, p.436, Anchor Books: Peterborough, HB ISBN 1 84602 025 5