The view from my room, quite unexpected;
Cathedral looming, imperious,
Filling my window, the darkening sky
Transcended by angles, arched recesses.
Once the tallest structure in Christendom
Standing proud in its priestly tyranny.
Instinctively I was drawn to detail:
The first uneven blocks, the gargoyles.
I imagined the peasant shivering,
Stumbling up steep hills, his head bowed.
The priest; the unvarnished face of God
Oblivious to the symmetry.
The Lancaster flying back from Berlin
Or Hamburg, anxious for a glimpse of home
Finding solace in the ancient steeple
A counterweight to inner turbulence.
That night my dreams were fitful, medieval,
The past tenacious, smothering
Until at 7 the church bells boomed
And life resumed its measured course.
