The University Park - A Poem

A Poem by Elizabeth Jennings

It is a place of whispers, it is a place
Where trees leap to life and converse with one another,
where the Cherwell picks
Its sauntering, winding way by its own free will.
The Parks must contain the shudders,
The kisses and touchings of hands of how many lovers,
bashful and arrogant,
Skilful and clumsy. This
Is a place, where characters are altered,
Where all are open to transformation, where the punters thrust
Their poles in the weedy water while their minds are alive
To love and its sweet beginnings. They say that this place
Holds trees from all over the world, from Russia to Spain,
from China to France,
I say this park is a lovers' grove, is alert to the senses' awakenings,
To imagination's ascents. Here are grasses
Where the young have found an awkward peace, and here
The old run to earth their venerable memories
And smile in the face of the past.