Finding time in Chester Park

   
The wrought iron gate closed    
Not locked but proof enough  
Against street cries and bustling bus  
Filtered the noise squeezing between the rails  
Loud enough to guide us back  
Should we wish . . . . . .  
Jack and me, my friend and I.  
Few shared the gravel crunch  
Its puddles and its mud,  
Unlike the stone-clad paths outside  
Where one can rush, from shop to shop  
Foot-fall-sure and level  
Only pedestrian clash to spoil the day.  
Listen !...eavesdrop on the blackbird songs  
See them love and feed their brood.....  
Leaves whispering in the breeze  
Here is space and time for thought  
Rainbow choice, gold and green  
Wind- blown songs that fade  
'Though never die but join the library  
Where stored in alphabet and order  
A million years or more from now,  
Share their space with other sounds  
Eroica, Beatitude, ranting tyrant  
And mundane conversations.  
Deep the wood, remnant of the chase  
Stillness lets us hear ourselves..........  
Lub-dub... lub-dub of healthy hearts...  
Left right, the feet reply, slow, predictable.  
Room here to walk and dream,  
No barging rushing crowds  
No false 'sorry sirs'  
(Whose fault, anyway?)  
The world is not a crowded place  
We crush each other in the train  
Because we will not take another route;  
But here there’s room..........  
Grasses, touching in the lawn  
Having space enough  
Making way for dandelion clocks
And timeless daisy.  
We came to walk and talk  
Recreate... think .....rest awhile....  
To leave behind the din of making money....  
The gaudy coke.....  
Three for two, or two for one,  
Gum strewn pavement slabs,  
Take-away ,throw-away  
And eat-out shops,  
But what we found was time.