Walking through the woods

 

Praise the day and bless the morning
Greet everybody you meet
Walk in the rain forever onward
Along the road and into the fields
Along the hedge then through the narrow opening
Between the bay tree and the holly
Woven with ivy and green laburnum
In the secret hollow where I found the shoe
A red stiletto, cast in the mud
Its companion gone forever
Now it sits atop the left speaker cabinet
A statement of style and defiance
Raised from the earth and saved for a moment 
Through the car park and onto the winding sandy path
A long country walk past the stand of silver birches
Up to where you can see the causeway below
With people walking and sometimes talking
A dog rarely lacking
Switch off the telephone and smile when we meet
Or furrow your brow with no care to greet 
Into the dell where they found the body
And round by the culvert that flows to the river
Double back up the causeway, a gentle incline
Bordering the brook and then branching off 
Through the woods up the hill to the oak
Where the witches and warlocks fulfil
Their full moon rites and strange incantations 
Bowing their heads to the earth and its creatures
Onto the steep path that leads to the hollow
Overlooked by the gnarly cinnamon tree
Shrouded by bushes and hidden from sight
A place with a branch for a hard and lonely throne
From which to observe the empty clearing
Of brown earth and leaf mould rarely explored 
Except by boys on their bikes and mopeds
So the judges can scowl and murmur