As you might have walked a similar path
With a lighted candle, or not
I note the huge size of the stone slabs
And how they have been worn by footfall
The pathway must have been essential
In providing a route for the workers
For the mill owners to have expended so
How much a fortune in prospect
But how many lives lost in the making
How many lives broken in the walking
Did they ever stop
To sit on this vast plate of rock
To listen to the river burbling
Did they ever look at the light in the trees
With a sense of wonder
Did they smell that countryside smell
The excrement of cows and sheep
Did they touch the bark, or the moss
Or, back then, had the moss not gathered
On Rolling Stones, or vice-versa
Happenstance in Heptonstall
Poems Started at Lumb Bank
Arvon 2018
