The Day of Saints - Day 38, Indract and Dominica

This week I went to listen to a talk on the newly established 'Cornish Celtic Way', a pilgrimage route across Cornwall which uses the heritage of Cornish saints to promote spiritual growth (with physical exercise!) as it winds its way from St Germans to St Michael's Mount. I was fascinated by what Revd Nigel Marns (the man behind the project) said, and I took many notes. Chatting to him afterwards, I realised how much our work had in common and we may in future collaborate on something.

I decided to take up my pen (or word processor) and write again, and here is something (a Spencerian sonnet) written about two saints linked with a place nearby me, remembered at St Dominic and Halton Quay Chapel. For the first time, I am using photos taken before my sabbatical began, although they were taken at Halton Quay with the work in mind.

Board on Halton Quay Chapel

FOR INDRACT AND DOMINICA

Halton Quay

Close-cloaked within a spectral mist at dawn

Between the swaying autumn-orange reeds

Indract and Dominca waterborne

North drift, unnoticed, like small seeds,

Unspeaking, voice the thrill of mustard trees

Watching the beds above the Tamar's tide

Imagine leaves aquiver in the breeze

And nested birds that safe from snares hide

But no, this is a mystery of the mind

And fooled to hope, in solitude I stand

No Indract blown upon the river's wind

Where now those visioned saints in Cornwall's land?

A wistful prayer for things that still might be

Has landed me this morn at Halton Quay.

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Reeds at Halton Quay