Chapel Bank

It was, once, a place of worship
standing small and neat and smart,
but proudly, on the steep side of the hill
known still as Chapel Bank.

And there it stands today
but with only half a roof,
creating a closer link than ever
to the heavens overhead.

It was a year or two ago
that the roof gave way,
letting in illumination –
of perhaps a different kind –
from the sheltered, shadowed
but protecting light afforded
by the chapel’s black and yellow,
round-arch windows.

And with the light
has come new growth:
a crowded congregation 
of ivy, bramble, holly, hawthorn 
and much more,
accompanied - of course - by elders.  

Outside, the strong stone walls remain,
begging the question :
what brought the building
and the people here
one hundred years ago, or more?
And what then wound the worship down?

From being a pulsing heart
of this community,
a place of Sunday, if not daily,
pilgrimage, the chapel
tells of change, and tolls for change: 
the transience that defines us,
gives life meaning,
and a beauty that is never strange.

Its remains a place of worship, still,
on Chapel Bank.