Liddington Hill

LIDDINGTON HILL There are places that connect us to our past Points of anchor which once linked us to known havens Those forms, reflections printed on our hearts Evoke forgotten times as icons graven And flag an instant signal, when we roam, That we are nearing once again our home There’s one such image ever in my mind That long chalk ridge, a back-cloth to my youth Like table, bare, where ancestors once dined The shape with a simplicity of truth It’s presence - a sensation visceral Revealed in every upward glance peripheral There Jefferies once ascended, body and spirit Every step on sweet short turf gained wider view And gave him a horizon without limit His world illumined in a brighter hue On each return he’d yet again recapture A lift of mind and soul to soaring rapture I will, time to time revisit loved location The noble downs above a fertile vale To know again that sense of exaltation Well remembered image tells familiar tale Then one day some time hence I’ll rise thereon And stay ‘til winds scatter dust, and I move on.