Tag Archives: stone circles

We live on the high ground

April 5, 2018archeology, exmoor, Life, poem, Poetryarcheology, exmoor, family, Life, Neolithic, poem, poetry, prehistory, Stone age, stone circlesThe Cheesesellers Wife

We live on the high ground
Below us the water tumbles and falls, jumping over buried rocks
Water criss-crosses the land eventually falling to the sea
Life is good here on the high, fresh soil and clear water
Healthy children, full bellies, long lives
Yesterday we sowed seed, laughing and singing
Today the sun is warm and the birds are singing for me
I try to put the birdsong into speech
As we knap flints from the coast
Mother is drawing a circle on the turf near the Family stones
A circle stones of to encompass Grandmother who closes in to death
We will cover her in the soil of home to keep her with us
Here on the high ground

Originally published in Three Drops from a Cauldron: Issue 11

Winter Hill

January 6, 2018archeology, beauty, England, history, poem, Poetry, winterarcheology, Avebury, Neolithic, poem, poetry, prehistory, silbury hill, stone circles, Stonehenge, winterThe Cheesesellers Wife

Steep green turfed pudding
summit ringing terraces
slopes carved by sheepen hooves,
local springs, winter born, fill a surrounding pool.

Built near ancestral dead, venerable springs,
the great stone circles
and an ancient way once trodden by mammoth.
The largest winter hill and the last,
Silbury still haunts and surprises.

This great last monument of the Stone Age in England is not far from where I live, and continually fascinates me. Image from and further information at heritageaction

Avebury stones

December 4, 2017archeology, art, watercolourarcheology, art, Artisan Cheese, Avebury, stone circles, watercolourThe Cheesesellers Wife

Some of the stones in the outer circle at Avebury in Wiltshire.

Ridgeway

September 16, 2017archeology, Ghosts, history, Life, poem, Poetry, Sciencearcheology, Avebury, poem, poetry, prehistory, Ridgeway, Stone age, stone circles, WaylandThe Cheesesellers Wife

Tombs, forts and settlements
String the Ridgeway
As beads on a necklace
Testifying to ancient use
Above the spring line and refreshment
On a hot Summers day
The white chalk is hard walking
Reflecting sunlight back onto the traveller
When wet, millennia of churning feet and wheels
Have crafted a deep sucking cloying mudclay
Is it true that you continue on and under the sea?
A road so old that it predates the English Channel
Is humbling

Walking from the great stones of Avebury
Up through fields to the ridgeline
Following in the steps of so many
Stumbling in snow through ramparts
Thrown up three thousand years ago
Passing where the Smith of the Norse gods
Will shoe tethered horses
Looking down on the rolling plain
Or trudging deep within the occasional copse
Fires my imagination
Brings to mind stories, legends
Archaeological finds and study

We have captured the stones

July 1, 2017archeology, Life, philosophy, poem, Poetry, speculative poetryarcheology, Life, Long Barrow, poem, poetry, prehistory, speculative poetry, Stone age, stone circles, StonehengeThe Cheesesellers Wife

We have captured the stones in their circles
First with maps and sketches
Now with our many photographs
They would otherwise move
Dance in the moonlight
Shuffle away to the devils lair
Creep up on a King or a witch

We have opened the barrows to sunlight
Pinned them to history by interpretive notices
Collected the bones within
Lurking on ridges, smothered with grass
Besieged by fields and fences
Children explore and play in the chambers
Where once ancestors dreamed

Do the stones protest at their confinement?
Do barrow wights still lurk after dark?
Have we chased away the Gods-smith?
Do we care?

Chalklands

April 29, 2017archeology, history, Life, nature, poem, Poetry, Scienceburial, Chalk, Downs, England, flint, geology, hill fort, history, Life, Long Barrow, neanderthal, Neolithic, poem, poetry, prehistory, Stone age, stone circlesThe Cheesesellers Wife

Chalklands

Chalk undulates across Southern England
Hills, gentle yet steep
Can be overtopped by clay peppered with flints
So treasured by the old folk

As old as the hills is true here
The chalk is a two hundred million year ocean
Stiffened and folded over time
By our living planet

Several human species
Have hunted in these valleys
Have dug into and sculpted these hills
Have left their ghosts for us to trace

The ancient monuments we treasure
Hill forts, stone circles, long barrows
Are but modern remnants
Compared to the first folk

My hills have deep roots

Avebury Stone

April 24, 2017archeology, art, astronomy, beauty, Painting, watercolourancient, archeology, art, Avebury, beauty, history, Painting, sketch, Stone age, stone circles, Stonehenge, watercolourThe Cheesesellers Wife

One of my interests (my sons may term it an obsession) is prehistory – which was born from childhood visits to ancient sites in or near the Vale of Pewsey in Wiltshire. Not so far from the end of the Vale is Avebury stone circle, arguably more spectacular than Stonehenge. Here is a sketch of one particular stone in the Avebury circle, and a rather colourful watercolour interpretation.

Circles

November 19, 2016archeology, children, history, Life, nature, poem, Poetryarcheology, Avebury, England, history, Life, nature, poem, prehistory, Stone age, stone circles, StonehengeThe Cheesesellers Wife

Circles

Dance a long dance at dawning
Dance a slow dance at end of day
Sing loudly together in the morning
Shout our names to the Sun as she goes away

These islands are littered with circles
Stone, earthen, timber , large and small
Little stones hidden in moorland heather
Megalith giants standing tall

We are the people of the circles
We are the people of the dawn
You will never understand us
Your link to your ancestors is torn

Dance a long dance at dawning
Dance a slow dance at end of day
Sing loudly together in the morning
Shout our names to the Sun as she goes away