What if I saw the eyes that now were closed ...

I'm a connoisseur of churches - 

Though I prefer my churches to be remote - stone sheds really, with a tower clapped on - 

The man wearing a crumpled jacket smiled - 

I pictured a church, on the edge of the land, under a sky that went on forever - 

No, I don't attend services here he said - 

The lean clever face was half hidden by shadow - 

There's nothing newer here in stone than the 15th Century - 

He pointed to a cross, scratched delicately into the floor of the long nave, about half way towards the altar - 

That's where the Saxon altar was - 

The roof's been restored - most of it is original - 

We walked in the gaudy light of Victorian stained glass - 

That's a memorial for the Clutterbuck family - 

That's a modern window - for St Lawrence - there's the grid iron -  

We walked back towards the entrance of the church - 

Yes - that's the crusader tomb - we don't know who he is - but you can see his face quite clearly - 

I thought of the bad dreams I'd had after reading Man-Size in Marble * - 

What if those frozen eyelids should open I thought - 

What if I saw the eyes that now were closed - 

* Man-Size in Marble, 1893 short story by E Nesbit

16.00

Thursday 21 July 2016

Church of St Lawrence

Warkworth

Northumbria