John Godfrey
A Chosen Place
(i.m. Jane Thomas, d. 13 Dec 1993, aged 33)
From a flat hilltop covered by a vast
limestone pavement we look out
clear across valleys to distant mountains,
watch a small train slowly bisecting fields
somewhere towards the Lake District.
We’re blundering, with two-way radios,
over clints and grykes:
it’s day three, The Mountain Rescue Exercise;
it’s warm July and we’re looking for you.
But you can’t see all this — at this point
you’re relaxing in your chosen place,
somewhere among all these grey blocks,
with a pillow, a can of Coke and a Telegraph,
keeping your head down, waiting to be found;
and we don’t yet know that, after the dog
has found you for us,
we’ll stretcher you down the hill
to tip you off at the bottom, still laughing.
Two weeks to Christmas and the radio reports
a climber missing up in Scotland;
in the Cairngorrns rescue teams are out:
it’s bitter December and they’re looking for you;
you’re in your chosen place, somewhere
among all that snow, waiting to be found.
But we can’t see all this —
at this point we don’t even know it’s you,
can’t foresee a helicopter that arrives too late.
Page(s) 50
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