A poem by Jim Ghedi, with accompanying artwork by Keith How.

The swifts flashed by our heads
through cracks and hollows
this mounded earth, on sunken tracks
towards a space to throw our sorrows.

Skylarks filled the air
a chorus promising summer
with both joy and grief,
we laid ourselves down.
Seasons have changed, it bloomed and withered
and we have carried it all, weathered and woven.
I saw your face amongst the ruins
like an old stone on ceremonial ground
unchanged with grace
and deepened by connection.

We held the loss
and the landscape held us with it
a kestrel hovered
and a solitary Curlew mourned its call
trembling over gorse and heather
weighted by isolation.
Others drew near
into the imprints of an old way
gentle were their steps
guided by an unspoken depth
returning to a sacred space
another fleeting moment.