SEPTEMBER REMEMBERED

This time last year my poem, Stone Witness, commissioned by the BBC for National Poetry Day 2016, was broadcast nationwide. 
The iconic subject of the poem, La Gran’mere du Chimquiere, is a 4,000 year old statue-menhir situated at the gate of St Martin’s parish church in Guernsey.  
She is thought to bring good luck and fertility to those who place a garland of flowers on her. 
The poem is written in the imagined voice of La Gran'mere.

STONE WITNESS 

(La Gran'mere du Chimquiere)

       



Stone,


old, old stone, I groan with age.



Gran’mere, Earth Mother, 


I stand sentry beyond the churchyard gate,


and watch, with sightless eyes,


the snail of human traffic creep along.



I am old and granite-cold: your island’s anchor-stone.



Your fathers’ fathers came to me 


to pray, to lay or lift some minor curse: 


an endless chain of island men, 


one generation to another, 


linked. 



Four thousand years grown old I am. Imagine.



Still they come, 


their mode of dress and manners changed, 


their supplications much the same:


love, fertility, wealth, happiness, a long life free of pain.



Young children step tip-toe, 


lay yellow garlands on my weathered brow, 


or proffer coins that glitter in the sun.


They stand before me, 


gaze up to my strange Earth Mother face,


and murmur spells as old as time itself.



Rooted here, I listen


as the salt breeze sings of breaking waves,


of fishing boats and lobster-pots, 


greenhouses, leafy water-lanes, 


smart pillar-boxes, shining blue,


and amber cats asleep 


on sun-warmed granite steps.



The soft breeze sings


of that so-lovely town 


that climbs up to the sunlit summit of a golden hill,


the dauntless castle and the ragged rocks 


where angry currents run.



Four thousand years grown old I am. Imagine.



Islanders, I anchor you.


Primeval, granite, I remain unchanged, 


unchanged in a strange world of change.



This gemstone island, Guernsey, 


this sea-locked rock whose timeless granite 


birthed me,


whose good folk 


shaped me, 


this 


my ancient magic will protect 


and cause to prosper.

*      *      *

BLUE MOUNTAINS UPDATE
 

Blue Mountains, Andrew, Colleen and Mike.     Photo by Jo Dowding

The eagerly anticipated appearance of talented local musicians BLUE MOUNTAINS at September’s Open Mic Night helped draw an even larger crowd than usual. I previously described the band as an acoustic duo, unaware that Colleen Irven and Mike Bonsall, have joined forces with strings virtuoso, Andrew Degnen, and nowadays perform as a trio.  As always at this ever-popular monthly event, we enjoyed some excellent and varied material from local writers and poetry-lovers but, for me, the high point of the evening was Blue Mountains performing, live, songs from their brand new CD, Hummingbird. 
 
You can obtain a copy here:-
https://www.facebook.com/BlueMountainsBand

or, if like me, you prefer your retail hands-on, just pop into that treasure-house of music, Vinyl Vaughans on Fountain Street, St Peter Port, and purchase your copy there.