The Old Swing Tree Poem by jim hogg

Park at Inch crossroads outside the new Church
And walk slowly southwards through beech hedge and birch
Turn left where the hanging tree once used to be
Straight into the war hidden there by the trees

Where soldiers and huts lined both sides of the Road
When bombs fell round here sixty five years ago
By Ash and by bluebell, old sycamore
Here where the past laps like waves on the shore


Take the wild pathway that hides the Lost Road
Towards the new village that would one day grow
And there by the verge you'd have found the swing tree
In silence, no kids swooping there wild and free

Nor pledging of love proudly carved in that tree
Those crudely cut letters for you and for me
And somewhere between times, free in the years
A few broken hearts, a few smiles and tears


So many dreams that would never come true
And not just for us but for everyone too
As time and the world bring us changes to rue
The gentle give way and the selfish break through

And here am I wondering, listening and lost
In search of all those precious moments long gone
Around the old swing tree, felled and away
By tracks of love carved too deeply to fade



08 02 08 Renfrew