It's there but you can't see it.
It turns the blades of the windmills
above the roofs of the houses.
There it is, walking the sandstone trail
then returning down Middle Walk
to the sound of bells.
It conjures chandeliers from bare trees,
turns the branches outside the church
into a festival. It whispers to the toddler
wobbling at the top of the high slide:
you can do this. You pass a friend
in Eddisbury Square - it flashes
from one face to another. There it is,
glancing along the bar in the Bear's Paw,
or the Ring O'Bells, passed over the counter
in Morrisons or Cowards. And here
the children come, full of it, out of school.
This is a place where it grows,
it's been growing a long time. Froda,
by the Weaver, building a stockade
for his beasts, edging his rough patch
with a hem of safety, wrapping it round
his children. The first shopkeepers,
setting out stalls on their burgage plots,
and the farmers bringing carrots
on a Thursday, to a street that was wide
enough to give it room to breathe.
Keep it breathing, keep it shining.
It's an earth-heart, a hearth. It's ours.
This poem was commissioned by Mallie Poulton
during his mayoral year
Reproduced by kind permission of
Andrew Rudd
April 2017
Castle Park House, Helena Mullholland, Watercolour Pen Nov 2017
Castle Park House, Winter Christmas Scene, (Bernice Barrett Brown)
Neill Binns, Weaver Bridge
The Old Hall painted by Claudia Cockcroft
Acrylic Painting by John Gallon (Main Street 2018)
Castle Park Arts Centre, watercolour by Roland Brandom
Castle Park House Watercolour by Bernice Barratt Brown
Neill Binns, Delamere at Sunset
St Laurence Church watercolour by Anne Bonner
Thatched Cottages painted by Derrill Walker