At Belas Knap

Word-Bird
(with Fliss)

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Belas Knap Long Barrow, Cleeve Hill, Gloucestershire

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Today, as we approach the silent mound,
it seems to arch its well-mown turfy back
above the tombs that past explorers found,
four chambers, and a central limestone stack.
Along its sides, four portals watch the wold,
and at its head a fifth, an extra orb,
is flanked by horns to transport phantoms through
to spirit life, where trees are clad in gold
and in their shade the earth-gods gladly daub
the grasses with an ever-greening hue.

Come night, we hear such strange and spectral cries…
they haunt an owl, who shudders though he wield
his hunting claws; the moonlit silver skies
cast eerie flickers over all the field.
Crrr-ack! A fire ignites atop the knoll
and from the woods vast swathes of shapes emerge
to circle and to leap the ghosts of flames;
we see a ram, a stocky mare and foal,
a chortling boar, and feel a sudden surge
beneath the earth, a rhythm to the games.

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Forthcoming in The HyperTexts

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Fliss & W.-B.’s notes: “We should like to begin by expressing our thousand thank-coos to Michael R. Burch, Editor of The HyperTexts, for accepting this poem! And for an interesting plan of the site, please click on this link, which will lead you to the English Heritage website. There’s an aerial photo too!“

 

Fliss

I’ve been aware of Belas Knap since 1987, having moved with my family from Godalming (Surrey) to Winchcombe in Gloucestershire shortly before Christmas 1986. I’m pretty sure a walk around the long barrow was one of the first outings we made from our new home. I hadn’t seen anything like it before and I found it rather magical. Later I came to recognise that feeling of magic as connected with my sense of a spirit world.

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Over the years, as my illness progressed, I became unable to visit the site. I still felt its presence, however, and when I was appointed Poet-in-Residence of Happenstance Border Morris group, in 2014 for three years, I was happy to revisit the site in my imagination, to compose something of a local interest poem. Recently I revised the poem, and the above is the result! My thanks to Word-Bird for her usual practice of sitting with me while I write and subsequently running comms with Mike.

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Thanks also are due, again, to all the poets who agreed to be featured in the January issue of Well Met. And thanks, as always, to our readers too. The tiny team values your support and looks forward to welcoming everyone back again for our February issue. Until then, we wish you a very happy New Year!​

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Pic credit:

’View of northern end of Belas Knap’, by 365 Focus Photography (via Shutterstock)

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