The Anglo-Celtic Chapel

The Anglo-Celtic Chapel

Astonishing, stunning, sublime!
Such an unexpected sepulchre
Like a standing sentinel
An east coast bulwark
An ecumenical shrine
Attesting, arresting with
Haunting eerie stillness
Peacefulnes and sanctuary -
Fourteen hundred years ago
From an east coast sister sanctum
By the shore of Oswald's reign
Cedd founded this space by the
Salt-marsh wetland estuary snaking
Towards the grey steely eastern North Sea.
This unique ancient
Cathedral of Anglo-Celtic hermits
Built from the rubble of the
Long expired empire of Rome
Upon this ancient Trinovantian shoreline
Where the ghosts of mariners and
Their sea-going barges
Presenting billowing russet-red sails
Slowly and gracefully moving along
The wise old Blackwater
Blemish the far reaching horizon
Staining and punctuating
Reflecting the setting sun and
The warm glow of the tiled roof.
The liturgy of Lindisfarne
Whence sages, priests and pilgrims
Sailed into this secretive creek-side dwelling
Their prayers
Dance and play along with the spacious
Movement of time
Shifting, hastening, expediting as
Easily as the silty
Salty tidal powerful muddy heaving sea!

Helena

Helena

Divine heavenly host
Sent from above
Beyond the veil of dreams
Helena, ghostly instiller of beauty
In this green and beautiful
Valley, whence
The quicksilver river flows -
Camel of the west
Great snaking river
Moving through the
Sacred enclosure
Of your divine intervention
Landscape Sovereign of
Ancient place
The elbowed river
Travelling towards the north
Silver-singing artery of life
Running from the misty upland moor
To Atlantic rollers crashing
Against the massive darkened
Sea-stained craggy serrated cliffs
This secret celestial valley
Sanctified, soft and peaceful
Hidden site of blissful repose
Fed by the old straight track
From other places, abodes and realms
Lady of dreams
Light up the morn with
Your ancient light
Oh Lady of sunrise
Goddess of sunset
Take us to your eternal home
The secret space from
Whence you perpetually reside
By the flowing river, where the reindeer hide
In your esoteric time-spun enclosure
At the edge of the wild gorse-tangled upland
Of the arcane sea-clad Celtic fringe!
Holy Helena, treasure seeker
Truth inspirer, love desirer
Nature's finest resurrection
Autumn leaves glow introspection
Natural spirit come to me
Eternal quester, confider, jester
Nature's soul-womb eternally,
Quietly found in this
Iconic medieval landscape
By mill and trackway
You travel by half-light
Manifesting through dreams
Where once you were queen
O'er the bridge which spans
Your waterway bright
Sylvan spirit
Light of light!
The cosmic dance of river flow
Elfin track and wind strewn rain
Find us, teach us
Take us back
From whence you came -
Our landscape lady Elen ran
Through the ancient roads where life began.
Oh Helland Goddess of the
Green-track, guardian of the antlered ones
Show us your story, your mystic ray
Spreading light and joy through the endless day!