Dunstanburgh Castle Poem by Paul Reed

I stood within your ruined walls today
Within roofless towers
Under floorless floors
And let the wind's harsh gash play on my face
Braved the chill
Through the slitted windows trace;
Defied the North Sea's blast
As if the waves had never rushed,
Decried the miserable past
As if time had stood still;
Stood where ancient feet had stood
And felt what had swayed the minds
Of those that stood on the same rubbed stone beneath
And struggled against the same binds;
Stood transfixed and rooted
Though your velvet sheep-dottled grass invited me to run
And hide within the scarred collapses
As searchlights played;
Stood and faced John of Gaunt
As if his gatehouse was mine,
As if I ruled that castle as surely as the swallows
Blazing past so near to the tumbled decline;
And then wanted to run away to the shore
And gather up sea shells
To hold tight within my hands
To remind me of my childish times
And this day spent in fallen lands