Poem on Sunday: The Dig by Andrew Holden

Andrew Holden’s latest villanelle was inspired by the architectural dig conducted by Cardiff University on the Globe Field behind St Illtud’s church in Llantwit Major.

The earth beneath our feet’s a door

Behind it are a thousand rooms

With stories of those gone before

Of lives lived out in days of yore

Their secrets held in muddy tombs

The earth beneath our feet’s a door

We open, hoping to explore

And marvel that a bone attunes

With stories of those gone before

Or call to question local lore

With evidence that now impugns

The earth beneath our feet’s a door

Unlocked and pushed to see the more

Our song of history resumes

With stories of those gone before

With artefacts from daily chore

The archaeologist assumes

The earth beneath our feet’s a door

With stories of those gone before.