Croick Churchyard

Image © 1999, Richard Webb
CROICK CHURCHYARD

The dead-end of two roads,
north or south of the Carron -
the moors from Croick stretch
barren now into Strathoykell.

"Glencalvie people was in the churchyard
here, May 24, 1845".

This message, their names, in English,
scratched for ever on the diamond panes,
cries across the years;
the fingers that wrote
point at us.

They saw their own language dying
as surely as they saw their homes destroyed.
It would not be Gaelic sheep
grazing their old pastures,
denaturing the soil.

This one memorial remains
long after the stones
of their homes have merged
irrevocably into the heather
where not even the grouse
are safe past autumn.

© Gerald England

Composed: Ashton under Lyne, 2nd February 1981

Publications

1982 Pennine Platform (UK)
1986 FUTURES (Ipswich, Magic Pen Press)
1989 Lactuca (USA)
1992 WORLD POETRY 1992 (Madras, World Poetry)
2007 MIND AND BODY (York, Fighting Cock Press)