Acknowledgement

Dear Reader, 

I have put on the blog this week the poem 'Acknowledgement'.  It was the first poem I had published and was sent the princely sum of £3 as payment.  I have kept these three coins in a box ever since and they are very precious to me giving me encouragement to write more poems.  This was twenty years ago and this poem holds a special place in my heart.

It is obviously very difficult for grand children to understand who is who, and who is divorced and re-married in the family, or perhaps just stayed single.  Emma has been to see my ex-husband and was confused with the relation I had had with him.   When she asked me whether I knew him, something hit me hard and tears flowed.  When we got home I wrote the poem. 

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Church pews are being ripped out of churches and replaced with padded seating.  Obviously if pews are stripped out of a church it can be used as a multi-purpose function space for a variety of events.  But, for me, there is something magical about a pew.  They have hassocks for the knees, sometimes embroidered by past members, a token of care and affection that the church has attracted over centuries.  Pews, according to Clive Aslet, arrived in the late Middle Ages, and seating was introduced in East Anglia and the West Country around 1300 as a sign of affluence.

Lets keep the pews, they are a central part of worship and without them they alienate those of us whom churches should express permanence and tradition. 

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Acknowledgement

We walked along the woodland path
my grandchild and I
noting nature things,
pointing out early primroses, aconites, wild violets.

We crossed the stream, and headed up the hill,
"Look a rabbit", my grandchild said.
Together we saw one magpie, then two.
We shared a chocolate bar, drank from the stream
cupping our hands.

Kneeling in the rich earth I said,
"we are part of this
you and I, dear granddaughter,
part of this earth is us".

She nodded.

"Do you know Grandpa, Granny?" she said.
"He said nature is part of us, or ought to be".
She chattered on and
God forgive me, I didn't hear.

Do I know Grandpa? Yes. A bit.
We lived together for twenty years,
I do know of his love for wild things,
for nature, and of his quick eye,
and how he loved me once
and how I loved him.

Yes, dear granddaughter,
I do know Grandpa.

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With very best wishes, Patricia