© Kevin Corby Bowyer 2024
The House on Boulby Cliff
An
impossible
garden,
perched
on
a
clifftop
overlooking
the
North
Sea,
sheltered
from
the
wind
by
a
lucky
rise
in
the
land.
Anything
will
grow
here,
so
it
seems.
The
ground
is
blest;
love
was
planted
here
in
the
past
–
deeper
in
the
past
than
we
know. It’s a magical place.
And
the
house,
isolated,
hidden
–
who’s
lived
here?
It
was
already
old
when
George
carried
Alice
over
the
threshold
in
1910.
Rose
and
her
parents
made
it
theirs
in
1923.
It
was
the
place
where
Rose
grew
old
and
alone.
But
Rose
is
more
than
she
seems.
How
could
she
be
“plain
old
Rose”
with
such
a
vivid ancestry?
As
for
the
garden,
it
flourishes
with
the
seasons
–
burgeons
in
the
summer,
draws
itself
in
as
winter
comes,
darkens.
But
nothing
really
perishes
here.
Nothing
buried
in
this
ground
ever quite dies.
Rose
and
the
garden
–
what
miracles
might
such
a
union
conjure?
© Kevin Bowyer 2024