MY NEW POEM ABOUT ANN COWAN'S ARTWORK, 'LOOKING NORTH'...

Centurion Looking North…

(Words from looking at Ann Cowan’s sketchbook artwork, ‘Looking North’…)

Eight men of a Contubernium and their Decanus

Had simply failed to return

From reconnaissance north of the wall,

Ambushed by wild Picts, guerrillas, indomitable savages,

Who had displayed the heads of the slain,

Impaled upon wooden stakes, 

A warning of the violence, the ravages, 

The consequences of trespass, 

And a wicked death with agonising pain… 

The Centurion stood at a milecastle and pondered

The fate of his legionaries and their Decanus,

Stood with his Optio upon Hadrian’s Wall;

Looking north there was no sign of the culpable savages,

Who had disappeared with the weapons of the slain

Into the harsh landscape of lochs and peaks.

The warning had been heeded, the ravages,

The consequences of trespass,

Though the thirst for retaliation would remain…

And he surveyed the unyielding rock faces,

Granite blocks, unwieldy strata, fissures of black;

A lake, a stream and wild, grey, evil places,

Inhospitable, impenetrable, no discernible track…

Reflections, a mirage, the remains of a dismantled fence,

A myriad shades of dun, slate and cream

Tormented the Centurion as he screamed his vengeance,

In the turmoil of his horrific, nightmarish dream…

Pete Ray

March 2019

The piece of artwork by Ann Cowan was ‘looking north’ and so I thought of a Centurion on Hadrian’s Wall looking north for a reason from one of the milecastles… 

I like to think it could have been me, having played the role of the Centurion Petronius Fortunatus for a number of years whilst teaching at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery…

A Contubernium was a group of 8 Legionaries, under an officer called a Decanus...

An Optio supported a Centurion...