A Place I Shall Always Be

I

Epsom Downs on a warm summers day.
Peace found high out of London's way.
A light wind in the air
and the trees Surrey Wood sway.

Every time I climb up to the downs,
and the wooded hills stretch out before me,
I feel in the air a calling to explore.
This is a place I shall always be.


II

Autumn has come to the moors of the Dart.
Deep purple the bruised hills where the river starts.
There is a magic in this elegant wilderness
        that places a muse in the heart.

I feel summoned up towards the pouting gloom.
To be in that wilderness is to be free
with her, among the stones and yellow broom,
This is a place I shall always be.


III

The woods of Epsom Common thick with snow.
It lines every oak tree and fills every bracken hollow.
The silence in the empty woods broken
        as a wickedly cold winter wind blows.

I know every path like the back of my hand,
the veins in my hand are roots, my fingers the trees
I trace my childhood in the toughening bark.
This is a place I shall always be.




IV

Spring sparkles on the waters of Lough Leane,
Exciting the woods in a way I have never seen.
It flushes colour across the cratered
faces of Killarney's graceful mountains.

There is a taste of heaven in the peaceful air.
The mountains slip so quietly into the sea.
The pound of the world is stopped here.
This is a place I shall always be.