Traveller's Lane

The bench still stands in traveller's lane

Where he sat and shared his world in vein

Tales of journeys fuelled the air

As the roads he travelled took us there

Salt to Wigan steel to Leeds

As rows of dwellings meld and bleed

How castles merged to rise and glade

And oceans to the coast invade

Of scenic course to capture soul

Of bridges gape and thunders roll

How spark on snow could steal the day

Of nature's shades and seasons play

How branch like fingers grazed the night

Of swallows silhouetted flight

The scent of hedgerows, sweet cut hay

To chimneys curl and cities way

We listened fixed to all we heard

Painting pictures with his word

I've always wondered how he saw

Such faith and fuel in nature's law

He never further than this road

Traveller's lane his only load

To him all worlds were dark in kind

Such sight portrayed from eyes so blind

lex ?04