Old Church Walls
after Hilaire Belloc
Stone walls stand broken in places ivy grows through the cracks
Sundays I walk along the path where the martyrs were led to death
Their names are known but not their faces only the stones that heard their prayers
I took the emphasis on simple diction and concrete nouns from Hilaire Belloc, as well as his use of short lines and sparse punctuation to create a sense of directness and urgency. The subject of old church walls and martyrs is also reminiscent of Belloc's fascination with Catholicism and English history.