Lutyens: <br /> <br />Gertrude Jekyll - <br />can you make me a garden <br />for my castle above the sea? <br /> <br />Gertrude: <br /> <br />Lutyens, I doubt it. <br />Your salt-marsh home <br />upon a rock <br />much impresses. <br />Fears of height, <br />that staircase, <br />raging wind and wave <br />hinder my visit. <br />I dare not leave <br />the castle I have reached <br />where sea-thrift, <br />medieval wallflower, <br />and pagan daisy <br />cling unchallenged <br />to crevice, turf and rock. <br /> <br />Lutyens: <br /> <br />Gertude, let pilgrims <br />inspire your genius and skill <br />to match this refuge. <br /> <br />Gertrude: <br /> <br />Haven-castle, <br />from your gallery, <br />eyrie courtyard, <br />west and east bedrooms <br />you shall greet my garden. <br /> <br />Down rock, across field <br />in sight and sound of sea, <br />Lutyens, I'll make you <br />a white stony growing place <br />cultured and sheltered, <br />safe as a siege <br />from the steep storms <br />of commerce, populace, <br />poverty and glut <br />beyond the tides <br />of the uneven sea. <br /> <br />Lutyens: <br /> <br />I am an eagle and a sheep, Jekyll, <br />a merchant across the sands <br />come rich to pasture. <br /> <br /> <br />[1985]<br /><br />Sally Evans<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/holy-island-castle-garden-lindisfarne/
