This poem was joint 3rd in Sheffield Hallam’s Universe student poetry competition.
Connections in High Places
Green Moor, South Yorkshire
On this isle in the sky
an etched steel disk anchors me to Earth.
Through it I see long distance, where
I am. A point in time and space.
To the west, sounding like those big-boned,
big-bosomed nanas of my childhood,
Margery Hill softly rolls a shoulder
to raise the county’s highest ground.
To the east, there’s nothing between
me and the Urals, just thousands of miles.
Ancient wrinkles on a broad, flat face;
the babushka who has seen it all.
Down the valley, the city where
I came in, on a path that leads back
to a lass in a brown-paper apron
buffing silver spoons and forks.
I never knew my grandmother
yet at this elevation, overlooking now,
I touch what has gone before, feel
my part in what may come along
this invisible thread, this ley line
to who and where I will never know.
No matter. We are connected,
the Urals, Margery, Lilian and I.
Bronwen Barber
Julie Mellor - poet 