Derwentwater Poem by Paul Reed

With nervous steps I approached
Along a path I knew
Familiar aspects once broached
Before the swift time flew;

The slated steps and gravel
Tiered layers, faces, everyone,
A pause for thoughts to unravel,
The old tea rooms sadly gone;

Then, glimpsed between the trees,
Beneath the grey clouds looming,
Your surface, rippling at it's ease
Sunk between the mountains brooding;

The pebbles and the shingles
Reaching down to your edge,
The shivers and the tingles
Up from my feelings dredged;

Your waters gently cradling
The glorious days that passed,
The memories sweetly ladling
From your depths so vast;

The boats that I rowed
The aching arms and legs,
The debts that I owed
To your backwashes and dregs;

My grandsons took in the scene
That I once took for granted,
From the many years between
Replenished and decanted;

And those days, scattered in the rain
Unknowing, as the seasons fled,
We must walk away from again
With my boots of lead.