ODE TO SCOTNEY CASTLE

Of medieval crumbling stone,
your dreamy tower
rises out of reflections
of another world:
bewitching as an escapade
into childhood's exquisite fairyland.

Dancing on chilly winds
autumn's falling leaves,
yellow-gold: a testimony
to nature's endless cycle
of birth-death-rebirth,
enduring - like you.

Marbled afternoon sky.
Shadows lengthening inch-by-inch,
mirrored in leaded windows
out of which peer
the insubstantial faces of ghosts
of those who lived here once...and never left.