ZENNOR, CORNWALL: 2 POEMS...

Moonlit Zennor…

(from Jane Askey’s painting…)

Morveren entices, lures and urges

One along a whitened way

Towards her sanctuary

Within a cold and dank church,

Where she purges

The sins of the curious, their lives helplessly astray… 

A wide chair lies inside, 

Carved in antiquity 

Of the mermaid, scales cascading 

From below voluptuous hips,

In her silent sanctity…

Her face is scored and damaged,

 Scarred, scored and ravaged…

And folks polish her with tentative fingers

And she shivers and quivers, yet delivers

Peace, hope and tranquility…

Thus Zennor’s spectral gloom urges

One onwards, deterring any delay,

Into its recesses,

Within the chill and damp church,

Where it purges
The sins of the spurious, their minds wilfully astray…    

  Pete Ray

Poem written about Jane Askey’s artwork…

Zennor’s St Senara’s Church, Cornwall.

It is thought that the 15th-16th Century carving was based upon Aphrodite, the goddess of love in antiquity, who originally held a comb and a quince, or love apple…

So many visitors have touched, smoothed and paid homage to Morveren, whose story can be found elsewhere, that the wood gleams… 

Zennor Head…

Pockets of amber 

Startle,

As bracken sweeps

Steeply 

From a cliff-top:

A coarse blanket

On rocky outcrops

Of cream-grey…

Pockets of stream

Straddle,

As valley swoops 

Dramatically

From the village:

An acidic knife

On a gouged slalom

Of yesterday…

Pete Ray

Sat on a bench, one-third of the way down the beautiful cliffside of Zennor Head, West Cornwall.