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Penpethy Souls
By Katharine Piper
Looming, casting, dark crags copper edged
A vision of her afore love fully fledged
His eyes quiet, arresting, capture the creature
Bright tendrils of hair, gold almost in feature
40 years pass with growth and decay
Quarry walls silently speak their sorry flay
Chisels and picks, sad mangles of rust
He laments her beauties now but dust
150 years as time lurches and leaches
The dark crystal sea, still berating the beaches
A momentary pause to glimpse deaths final hand
Before we too are lost, a mere grain in the sand
Sheets of black cliff, glittered with profusion
Dark abyss glaring, foretells our life’s conclusion
The sorrow felt at love lost now but rubble
He too is gone, spawning a sorrow double
To contemplate that he, she, you or I
Are here in flesh now but will cease, vanish, die
A glittering love beheld once in our lives
Dies too or survives in pastel blue skies
Could it be she haunts the valley, stream or churning sea?
Do her feet still gaily tread the church or rectory?
Does she ride at speed amidst the cold, hard driving rain?
Is he searching for her still in lonesome, wandering pain?
Inspired by walking in Hardy and Emma's footsteps in Cornwall (Lyonesse)
© Katharine Piper 8th March 2020
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