Carisbrooke Poems | Examples

Tiled Floor

Tiled floor

As I view the old and the new,
The tired and the worn,
Alongside the pristine and sharply defined
The original master plan dulled
With newer, brighter inserts,
I see an untidy cohesion
A compromise
An inability to fully reinstate
Though craftsmen have done their best
Restoring years of alteration and renewal
It is an unholy alliance
Trying to both eye and mind
For it is less than perfect.
But it must do
It is all that is possible.
At a distance, no obvious problem
But on close inspection the joins, the mismatches
Are to be lived with, endured, 
Imperfect but workable, 
Usable, necessary.
And I must find a way of
.. acceptance.

Lent Retreat
February 2010



This was inspired by the tiled flooring section in front of the memorial to Princess
Elizabeth,  in The Minster church of Sts. Thomas, Newport, Isle of Wight, UK. Princess
Elizabeth was the daughter of Charles 1, and died at Carisbrooke Castle where her father
had been imprisoned prior 
to his execution in London.