Castle Snowdrops Poem by Sally Evans

By the four limes, boughs hoisted skywards
from bumpy boles, their suckers cut to ground,
huddled the snowdrops I had quit seeking
in stone-prisoned castle compounds.,
cropped lawns, plants bedded, roses wall-bound
beyond gaunt legs of buttressed trees.
Pressed outwards by long decades
of swellingwidth, a fluted ring,
clusters of inch-high green and white
hidden in gritty channels gardeners
would not reckon part of their managed site.
So snowdrops cling to history,
blank words from which the tales have dried,
waken yearly at a blink of cold daylight.

Stirling Castle Writers Group:
A Celebration of the Castle 2012