These Secret Gardens

Through these bowers of bliss
through this 
time-tunnel of my life
revisiting the gardens of childhood
sacred gardens
milkthistle and hardwood
with dandelion seeds blowing here and there
birdsong and bees’-hum
and blooms unfolding everywhere 
though walled and gated
private and secluded
still leading onto open riverbanks 
whose golden waters flow like hymns of thanks
down to the Solway sea
I’m free, I’m free
and come here only for to be, one day
to be

Photos taken at Belsay Hall, Castle and Gardens