Mandy Pattullo: "Tangle" 2021 Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem, Fall of the Titans (Public Domain image)
The poem was commissioned with the support of a donation to the Hearth in 2015. Marcia, just 17, researched the history of the adjoining Horsley Village Church, the manse and its resident artists. Her poem symbolises the fading of Winter, the coming of Spring, the warmth of Summer and the drift of Autumn. Marcia herself said, "I was inspired by both history and art. The seventeen lines of the poem are significant because the Hearth was a place of religious sanctuary in the late 17th century and the five stanzas represent the five centuries that have since passed".
Footprints in the Tapestry of Time
Time passes for all whose footprints walk the hills
Beyond. Who saw the fading winter
Morning as they trod softly?
Who watched the rain, light in the
Coming spring or wildflowers
As summers touch unfurled their petals?
Time watched. Watched the leaves drop.
And drift. Summer blown away by a breeze and
The misty twilight firelight where time sits
And remembers. Hestia fireside goddess
Watched and is watching and will watch footprints
Of the firelight shadows and time's stories
By flickering firelight.
Your myth echoes. Intertwined. Like twisted plants.
And in the firelight, time remembers all whose weaving, whose brush marks, whose
Stitch-work are scattered forever like threads
in a Tapestry of time
By Marcie Winstanley aged 17
Reference is made to Hestia, a Greek virgin goddess of the hearth, home and family and the eldest daughter of Cronus and Rhea, both of whom were Titans. Her father Cronus swallowed all of his children and as Hestia was the firstborn she was consumed first. Zeus, her brother and God of sky and thunder fought back against his father, causing him to spit his children back up again. Hestia was the last to emerge and alongside her siblings battled and defeated their parents and the rest of the Titans, after which she took up her place at Mount Olympus, as the goddess of the hearth.
Poets renew our vision, as we stand with our eyes wide open, and our senses heightened. They add colour, nuance, shadow and shade allowing us to see, hear, feel and sense the world around us differently. They put their hearts and souls on the page in ways that allow us to interpret them as we will, assigning meaning and connection. It's with this thought in mind that we dig in for the Winter and look forward to the renewal of Spring.
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