{"id":"69c57b19948ce0defd0a52bb","title":"Poetry Corner","path":"publications/annual-reviews/2024/poetry-corner","contentMarkdown":"# Poetry Corner\n\n![](https://kent.ngx-ramblers.org.uk/api/aws/s3/site-content/bfa907dd-da71-4a33-9f57-934e35632f27.jpeg)\n\n## Old Road\n\nIn a chaos of branches,\nbetween the polished ebony of yew-stumps\nand the cling of ivy,\nthe haste of wood ants,\nand the must of rotting chestnut leaves,\n\ntrace a path traversed\nfor longer than clock-hands have turned:\nby herdsman, drovers,\ntraders, pilgrims...\n\nwhose footsteps, voices,\necho in the yew fronds,\nare lost in mist, layered\nin the startle of deer;\nare confused by the meander of springs\nand shifting greensand,\nare bewildered by the silent work\nof fungi frilling trunks.\n\nTo journey down this holloway\nis to travel with peoples in their thousands,\nthrough years in thousands,\nto where you can chase\nthose slow-blowing dreams,\nwatch seeds, fluff of dandelions,\ntwist, lift from their moon-faced clocks\nand drift away to future time obscured\nin branches that lace the path ahead.\n\n*Lizzie Ballagher*\n\n*(The so-called 'Old Road' is an ancient drovers' road and holloway which both overlaps and interweaves with parts of the Pilgrims' Way and the North Downs Way. Much obscured by time, new transport modes, and neglect, it emerges at one of its most visible points from thickets in King's Wood near Canterbury.)*","contentHtml":"<h1>Poetry Corner</h1>\n<p><img src=\"https://kent.ngx-ramblers.org.uk/api/aws/s3/site-content/bfa907dd-da71-4a33-9f57-934e35632f27.jpeg\" alt=\"\"></p>\n<h2>Old Road</h2>\n<p>In a chaos of branches,\nbetween the polished ebony of yew-stumps\nand the cling of ivy,\nthe haste of wood ants,\nand the must of rotting chestnut leaves,</p>\n<p>trace a path traversed\nfor longer than clock-hands have turned:\nby herdsman, drovers,\ntraders, pilgrims...</p>\n<p>whose footsteps, voices,\necho in the yew fronds,\nare lost in mist, layered\nin the startle of deer;\nare confused by the meander of springs\nand shifting greensand,\nare bewildered by the silent work\nof fungi frilling trunks.</p>\n<p>To journey down this holloway\nis to travel with peoples in their thousands,\nthrough years in thousands,\nto where you can chase\nthose slow-blowing dreams,\nwatch seeds, fluff of dandelions,\ntwist, lift from their moon-faced clocks\nand drift away to future time obscured\nin branches that lace the path ahead.</p>\n<p><em>Lizzie Ballagher</em></p>\n<p><em>(The so-called &#39;Old Road&#39; is an ancient drovers&#39; road and holloway which both overlaps and interweaves with parts of the Pilgrims&#39; Way and the North Downs Way. Much obscured by time, new transport modes, and neglect, it emerges at one of its most visible points from thickets in King&#39;s Wood near Canterbury.)</em></p>\n"}