the old church tower
reflected in the mirror
of the blue floodplain
We drove through the Box End area of Bedfordshire, a flat expanse now intersected with a new bypass. The road is built up higher than the field level, clearly for a reason as the plain was flooded on either side of it. The day was cold, but still and sunny, the sky was blue and it was mirrored in the pools of water. A stirring scene!
the bickering gulls
driven inland by cold coasts
scream at each other
There are more gulls around this time of year, Bedfordshire is far from the coast, they come inland, more food, more fields, more pickings. I’m not sure if it’s more temperate, but perhaps it’s less blustery and bearable for them. They do make noise when they’re excited!
It’s mostly black headed gulls (who actually have white heads this time of year as it’s outside of breeding season), but you get the occasional herring gull too, slightly bigger, with the red spot on the beak which their young use as a target to peck at to get some more delicious regurgitated food.
Black headed gull (top) and Herring Gull illustrations from RSPB website.
hills hide the dragon
his breath crawls from old dark vents
seething in the fog
Whenever I see fog, especially that rolling fog which seems alive, I think of the film Excalibur, directed by John Boorman. Silly really, but it makes me think of the Dragon, which Merlin (the wonderfully cast Nicol Williamson who died this year) uses as his source of power. The film is cheesy but also elemental in it’s impact, brutal, violent, touching, heroic. It’s a great romp which combines both the Celtic mythology and the romantically influenced chivalrous take on the Arthurian legends from such authors as Sir Thomas Malory which came centuries later.
Merlin and Guenevere played by Nigel Terry and Cheri Lunghi (rights to photo- Excalibur movie)
In the film, Merlin is eventually tricked by the beautiful half sister of King Arthur Morgana (played by the timeless beauty Helen Mirren) and beguiled, so she inherits and learns the Charm of Making. It seems the actors were not on the best of terms to put it mildly, which Boorman used to his advantage in filming. There is a very believable (uncomfortable) dynamic between them in their shared scenes.
Merlin and Morgana (Nicol Williamson and Helen Mirren), they both look thoroughly annoyed to be sharing this intimate moment. (rights to photo –Excalibur movie)
So back to Morgana… After stealing the charm of making, she wielded the power of the dragon, the dragon’s breath to make magic and wage war on her brother (King Arthur – the underrated Nigel Terry) with their own incestuous offspring Modred. It all culminates in a final tragic battle, but I’d be spoiling it if I told you more. What I will say is it has a smattering of well respected British luvvies hamming it up to high heaven and uses a fantastic score, Wagner’s the Death of Siegfried and Orff’s Carmina Burana are exceptionally placed. I’d recommend it. Great movie.
But yes, the fog, I drove through it, thick as treacle. Whose to say there was no dragon out there? Belching fog all over Bedfordshire, before retiring to slumber back under Pegsdon Hills (I’ve convinced myself a dragon lives there).
Finally, here is a scene at the beginning of the film where a mortal weary Merlin allows Arthur’s dad Uther (Gabriel Byrne) to go and conceive him with someone else’s wife… tut tut. But despite this displeasure at such mortal lust, Merlin knew, with the power of his “sight” that a great King would be made of this union…
a leaping fish breaks
through the ceiling of heaven
and gasps at his world
Was at Box End Lake near Bedford. Beautiful warm evening. Watched Deb and Neil swim, then just watched the stillness of the lake at sunset when they disappeared to the far end. I noticed fish were leaping out of the water, twisting in mid air then flopping back in.
I know, I know, more lazy anthropomorphism. I’m giving a fish a concept of self, world and desire for adventure in this Haiku, but have you ever interviewed a fish? You might be surprised.
However, a more plausible explanation for this behaviour is they might have been trying to escape from the alpha hunter in the lake, big bruising Pike live in it. Mind your toes!
My pic from Box End.
the claw foot flexes
scoring stone as the flames lick
on Mithras’ altar
This photo is from the Altar of Mithras at the recently restored Wrest Park where we went today. We joined English Heritage, so we can go in free for a year. Seeing as it’s round the corner we’ll be regulars. It’s only around three miles from our house. An enormous country house with beautiful gardens, dotted with outbuildings, classically influenced sculpture and smile inducing follies. You can get lost in the grounds, but the Altar is marked on the map and it seemed alluring, so we found it, deep in the woodlands, an imposing stone block. I should have got a pic of the whole thing, it had a brazier on top (rather, I assume it did but it was around 10 feet up so couldn’t see) with Greek and Persian inscriptions. But the four claw foot stands appealed to me the most.
Who was Mithras? He was worshipped around the time Christianity was picking up. There seem to be many parallels and similarities between Mithras and Jesus, they were contemporary developing religions. Also, Mithraism was a secretive religion, which would, I believe, appeal to the gentry already soaked with classical teaching. Mystery stokes interest. I can imagine this altar was built in the woods as a kind of naughty folly, fires probably burned on it and I can imagine tongue in cheek summer parties lasting well into the night with everyone in Roman fancy dress. “Roman Priests” would conduct rites and the wine would flow. Do I have any evidence for this? Of course not, but if I built a great big altar in honour of a mysterious deity, I would certainly use it for fun historical reconstructions!
Crows dance, Buckshot specks,
Invisible threads weaving,
Murder tapestry.
As I was driving down to London I saw a great number of crows, perhaps fifty of them, high up in the Bedfordshire sky. They were swooping in and out, seemingly having the greatest fun without crashing into each other. It did look like they were weaving this great invisible tapestry in the sky. I’d never seen so many crows in a great black cloud before, a proper murder of them.
And seeing as Debbie is using her artwork to supplement her Haikus, I’m going to do the same, so I’m using her artwork too :)
Crows, 2010, by Debbie Brown, woodcut on monoprint. 10/25. Reproduced by kind permission :)
