Seemingly Out Of Place…
(Lamenting the Sycamore Gap tree, Northumberland…)
Close by the iconic, meandering Roman wall,
The dip, rather like the one between a Bactrian
Camel’s two humps, contained a very noticeable,
Incongruous sycamore tree. And I was in its thrall…
It was as though it had been placed there ornamentally,
To fill a space, to decorate the hollow, or provide an attraction,
A contrast to the harsh grassy slopes and Hadrian’s once formidable
Fortified barrier, constructed mainly of sandstone, quarried locally…
The overgrown cliff edges can now but mourn the tree’s destruction,
A callous, mindless and typically contemporary, draconian
Deed, stinking of vandalism, an inane lark, or from a lamentable
Selfishness. Nature, however has already begun to sprout its own reconstruction…
Pete Ray
9th July 2025…
Sorting old images from a visit to Hadrian’s Wall in 2016, I smiled sadly when I saw the images which accompany this poem…
The tree was truly noticeable and a real feature on the landscape near Housesteads, along the Roman wall…
