~*~

Not for the faint of heart

Those devil-dare roads

That wind and course

And spill o’er vale and rambling hill.

 *

‘Tween walls of stone unyielding.

Scarce room to breathe as

Bumper whispers to bumper

“Take care o’er there by Malham Cove.”

 *

As mists roll in a view obscured.

One dare not say, nor breathe, a word

As through the rolling roads we pass and

Pray for cushion of the grass.

Dorothy Chiotti
All Rights Reserved

~*~

This short, haphazard poem was inspired by a rather haphazard drive through the Yorkshire Dales.

My husband wasn’t driving at the time. His uncle, who resides in Skipton, sped us through a jam-packed one-day excursion, which took us by many lovely ancient villages; up into the hills at Malham; over to Bolton Abbey and whatever else he could squeeze into a whirlwind tour.

The scenery was glorious. I really wish we could have spent more time there.

It was a long driving day and Lloyd’s uncle, who is 86 and has lived in the area for many years (and who swims 34 laps of a 25 metre pool four mornings a week), drove those familiar narrow, winding stone wall-lined roads like a speedway ~ that is to say FAST!!!

To be fair, everyone drives those roads ~ roads that were never designed for modern-day passing traffic ~ like speeding demons.

It’s all part of the charm, I suppose … and why it’s unlikely I shall ever take the wheel of a car in the Yorkshire Dales myself. 😉

~*~

While in England, in September, I adopted a bit of a writing experiment.

As we travelled by car around the country, my husband driving, I kept a blank-paged journal and a pen ever at hand to write down whatever inspired as we went.

It was a fun exercise which, apart from leaving me with a few inspired gems (and some jibberish, but that’s the creative process, right?) also instilled a greater sense of how much of my heart still resides in this land where I spent my formative years.

The view inspired, the memories flowed, my heart was filled and the words came.

I’ll be posting them as the spirit moves.

Thanks for visiting …

Dorothy 🙂

~*~

©Dorothy Chiotti, Aimwell CreativeWorks 2013