A Way

Three score and ten
Straight sentinels
To the end

Some say their
Destiny fulfilled

They had no names,
But we knew them
Pillars holding aloft
Cool canopies green
Of stars and light
We knew them right

Our journeys pulled
Invisible toward
Arms of welcome
Into the presence
Infused through
Time of each who
Passed this way

Shrouded
In thought echoes
Bearings and
Breath taken
Peace and
Ease descend
Into our core
We are at one
We are not
Mistaken

This was
A special place

And it is gone
The limbs are gone
Our way markers - gone
We see the emptiness
We feel the sadness
We share the devastation
And
Though we know it to be true
That from the earth life will renew
We shall miss our way
Through the trees.

I did some poetry with residents and staff at 'The Barn', Holton Lee, and this is the result of a conversation on the day after they had logged out a setion of pine trees which had walks leading through.