Sustainable Communities BA at Dominican University of California

Chapel Hill

Slow gear this homespun stretch of breath

Cross-laced the press of toes on the cattle way

Moss sprung propelled the limbs akin the

fernside swell which laps to the tip

of trig on Chapel Hill

Here the gathered

shift soft arrange

their risen shapes

perpendicular still

to the soft angles

on the solace hill

Each clappered footfall on the reverenced soil

A peel of pitch and lilt on tilted green

Each eye a kite between sky and hand

While we circled like steeples or flagstaffs

rooting on the chimming hill

If as oracle the tone of feather on beating bone

springs hope as wings and lifts the core connect

of those mentioned in this kindred plane

then this is how we felt our way by scent alone

soul saviour balm

at the tip of trig on Chapel Hill

Derek Elliott -