The New Murrey and Blue blog

by Maria Grazia Lucrezia Leotta

I walked alone in the silence of my inner thoughts

and touched the ancient castle’s walls.

I heard the sound of my own footsteps

echoing in the shadow of the Prince’s Tower.

Laughs, voices, joy and grief,

a child’s wooden sword,

hooves on pebbles,

rosemary and lily,

grass and rose.

The North wind blew

pushing away the clouds that covered the waving Dales

under the cobalt sky

of Middleham’s cold winter.

I heard horses and armours,

men’s steps on the ground,

women screaming in the pain of giving life,

and an old love song played on lute and shawn

lost in centuries, found in memories that arise now.

High and proud sparkled the beacon’s flame

the resounding horns of excited hunters.

“Welcome” said the Lord of the North,

“Welcome to my castle of dreams”

as he offered me a golden goblet

of mead and madeira

at the table of honour from which we surveyed a raucous party

on the twelth day of Christmas.

Red faces burning for the wine

under a carved stone mantelpiece

heat radiated from the bright hearth

as the fire consumed the logs with its greedy flames.

A crown and an ermine robe,

a tabard of murrey and blue

the throne’s supreme glory,

the heartbreaking death

of England’s rightful heir

the river Ure sang a lament of mourning for the true king.

I walked alone in the silence of my inner thoughts

under the gloomy sky

of Middleham’s cold winter

and touching the ancient castle’s walls

it was there I found my soul.