A poem I wrote and accompany on a mini harp as Rick reads my words. The miniscule beauty of life flourishing on a rock, which was once part of a coral bed, in a simple stone trough, against the dramatic backdrop of a landscaped garden at Dartington Hall.

Lyrics

Crouching low against the enormity of the ancient trees, a miniature world of delicate perfection steals my gaze and brings me back to ground. A rock, gnarled, fissured and cracked into a myriad of textures, sits quietly like an aged idol in a stone trough composed of molecules as old as the earth. It holds this space with such certainty. Implacable, unmoving, solid. Quietly providing a place for new life to begin.

This miniscule community of tiny luminous ferns, of unfurling brackens in radiating curls, of pimpling sedums in a spectrum of colours, lights up the space in a twinkling fairy-like chain, of oranges, reds, greens and golds. But it is the velvet softness of the deep evergreen mosses, holding onto the last drops of rain, which forces me to touch now. My fingers pressing eagerly to explore their springy, spongy flesh.

I realise then, as I trace the rings of pastel lichens beginning as the moss ends, that this rock is in fact, razor sharp and brittle. To touch could tear flesh and feet raw. This uprooted and bleached body was once part of a bed of coral, riddled with holes from anchoring anemones and tunnelling sea creatures. Now it rests here in another universe of light and air. And despite all the drama of the manicured landscape garden, it is this modest little rock that sets my heart a light in a thousand flickering beats.

Praise to you oh Rock, brother from the deep sea. Once bathed by salty oceans, caressed and impregnated by corals. Listen now to the creatures of the air. The deafening bird song of feather and flight. Feel the warmth of father sun and sister moon looking down on you. Embrace the shift in body and soul now as you stand upon the earth. But remember still the crash of all those years of rolling waves.

How long has it been since the earth exploded into life? Forcing up hot magma and peaks of lava? Cooling the gasses into the seas and birthing the primordial soup into being. How many cycles of our earth rotating in space did it take to create the deep oceans and all of their creatures? Here we both sit then. Joined in this place by a sudden welcome shaft of sunlight after the drenching rains. Basking together in quiet and peace. Comfortably silent. Me sitting on the nearby bench, you in front of me. Simply enjoying the warmth of a new day together.

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