The parish church of St. Sampson is the oldest of Guernsey's parish churches, standing on the coast where St Sampson de Bretagne landed in the sixth century, intending to convert the islanders to Christianity.
ST SAMPSON’S CHURCHYARD
When young I’d prowl among headstones,
examine weathered dates and names,
admire old plinths with skulls and bones
or crosses or engraver’s claims.
Death had allure and, thrillingly,
its strange, exotic pageantry,
was then unreal, remote to me.
Not now, when age afflicts these bones,
uneven ground portends a trip
and bending down to study stones
can make these damn bifocals slip.
It all seems far too real for me:
death’s bloody grim finality,
its awful anonymity.
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