THE BARRY BUILDINGS

The usual Christmas greeting, 
alongside many others,
from my Alma Mater.

This year, a movie clip
starting with snow –
a startling and enhancing contrast
to the rich, red buildings.
I watch and listen,
as the images abound
and memories are found.

Dulwich.  The Barry buildings.
To the ordinary eye, extraordinary,
but for me, for seven years,
as for my thousand fellow pupils,
and those that came and went
before and after, just a backdrop.

Dulwich.  The Barry buildings.
Maybe just a backdrop,
but ever-present: an anchor, a platform
that spawned, then steered, and shaped
a love of learning and discovery.

So many places bring to mind
those questing and exciting years:
The North and South Blocks,
Lower Hall, Great Hall,
the sometimes narrow stairs and little windows,
the Cloisters (now glazed in),
The Butt, the Comm, the Library.
the unfolded and unfolding grounds,
the Clump, the avenue of trees.

And last of all, the Covered Courts
where learning came to be examined
in summer days that soon would preface
another end of term or, after seven years,
a close of schooling that was 
singular and special.

Here at Dulwich, with the Barry buildings,
strangely, just a backdrop.


I was a pupil at Dulwich College between 1952 and 1959