From an overgrown path
After Leoš Janá?ek
From an overgrown path,
Through darkened trees,
Something was there
That might be seized;
It glinted pale, went,
Then came again.
Was it, could it be
A new domain?
A vanishing place -
I'd never quit.
Keep it quiet; keep it
Secret. Keep it!
Buttressed by old Scots
Pines, those rock walls
Would conceal the one who
Inward crawls.
And once within: see!
Invisible
To sightless folk who might
Glance the hill.
They will not come,
There's nothing to see;
The overgrown path is
Testimony.
No stone, no rock,
Just the sky beyond,
Through a tangled maze
Of frond on frond.
No limestone quarry
Of my Before;
The castle of rock
I thought I saw.
Just pale insubstantial
Atmosphere.
But the overgrown path
Is still there.
© RM Meyer
Winswell Water, May 2021