The Silver Birch Tree

The Silver Birch Tree

Over down along Meadowsweet and Buttercup

Holy stones ‘Sanctum Est’ above the quiet running river

Where long ago summers meet

Two lovers sat beneath a tree

Upon the long green bank above the quiet running river

Within the hush of heaven’s garden stands a tree

Beside Victoria’s church above the quiet running river

Blue Cranesbill twine the silver

Two lovers lay beneath a tree

Beneath the green canopy above the quiet running river

About the peeling silver bark sweet flowers grow

Rain, falling soft as light above the quiet running river

Their ashes forever dust to lie

Two lovers ever beneath a tree

Beside the green meadows above the quiet running river

*(St Mildred’s Church, Whippingham, Isle of Wight)

My mother and father’s ashes were scattered with a service beneath the canopy of a silver Birch tree in the grounds of St Mildred’s Church in 2007 They had both returned to this church to have their wedding vows renewed in the summer of 1992