Grave Goods

Melanie Giles

Bury me with a blood moon
or a new crescent,
fine as a sickle.

Fill my hems with loam
and the sheen from a quern,
polished with use.

Around my neck, not jet beads
but the full stop
of something well done

and in my hand, place
seed-pods, thistle-heads;
waiting for the rain.

Bury me with marks
and traces, things weathered
to new pigments:

fertile ash,
the pollen of rust
and patina of verdigris.

The Science

This poem is inspired by the artwork 'Dark Peak' by Rose Ferraby, which is the cover image for this special issue, and used collage to capture the different layers of meaning and horizons of inhabitation which mark the traces of past lives in the Peak District. The hints of rock outcrops, cosmological bodies, barrow strata and hidden, decayed archaeological finds prompted the reflection of what 'grave goods' might define my own life.

The Poet

Melanie Giles is an archaeologist and poet, who works at the University of Manchester. She specialises in the Iron Age of north-western Europe: in burials and mortuary archaeology, in landscapes and the study of material culture. She also works with museums, collaborating with artists and other poets to bring the past to life in unusual ways.

Next poem: Knowth by James Caruth