What memories do you hold
You who stand
Imposingly grey and
Impervious to all
Except the rain
Do you remember
The first clearance
Of Forests that
Strode proud across
The chalk downs
Those first tentative
Fields sown with wheat
Ploughshares and pottery
The first burials
The Kennett longbarrow?
Who was the king then?
When you were first raised
How many men died
As they fought
To make you a temple
Do you recall
Those first pilgrims?
Who did they worship
Back then before
The new faith?
Do you remember
The red cloaked
Foreign legions
Marching across
Their new won land
What happened
Those barren years
Abandoned after Rome left
So few people
And none worshipping
Old Gods forgotten
Your status diminished
New centres of life
Man found new ways
Places to worship the new God
When did the new folk come?
Building houses
Robbing you
smaller sisters broken
to build a new place to worship
Did you wonder why
when you were already here?
Millennia of worship
Beneath their feet
And all around
So we stand here today
You and I
So cold despite the heat
Of the noonday sun
My understanding overwhelmed
What of us modern pilgrims?
Our oak leaved badges catching the sun
Each journeying in a day
Distances beyond the dreams
Of those who built you
So I visit again
Renewing my faith in you
Guardians of human memory
You who have seen all
The ages of man
Avebury is a world heritage site located in Wiltshire. Constructed over four and a half thousand years ago it is a place where I find some feeling of human continuity within the landscape and that holds spiritual meaning for me. If you get the chance to be a modern pilgrim, take it
Martin Addison – 22/08/2013
2e0mca.uk 
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