Holy Island Castle Garden [lindisfarne] Poem by Sally Evans

Lutyens:

Gertrude Jekyll -
can you make me a garden
for my castle above the sea?

Gertrude:

Lutyens, I doubt it.
Your salt-marsh home
upon a rock
much impresses.
Fears of height,
that staircase,
raging wind and wave
hinder my visit.
I dare not leave
the castle I have reached
where sea-thrift,
medieval wallflower,
and pagan daisy
cling unchallenged
to crevice, turf and rock.

Lutyens:

Gertude, let pilgrims
inspire your genius and skill
to match this refuge.

Gertrude:

Haven-castle,
from your gallery,
eyrie courtyard,
west and east bedrooms
you shall greet my garden.

Down rock, across field
in sight and sound of sea,
Lutyens, I'll make you
a white stony growing place
cultured and sheltered,
safe as a siege
from the steep storms
of commerce, populace,
poverty and glut
beyond the tides
of the uneven sea.

Lutyens:

I am an eagle and a sheep, Jekyll,
a merchant across the sands
come rich to pasture.


[1985]