retreat

"... O, how I long to travel back,
And tread again that ancient track!
That I might once more reach that plain
Where first I left my glorious train,
From whence th’ enlightened spirit sees
That shady city of palm trees.
But, ah! my soul with too much stay
Is drunk, and staggers in the way.
Some men a forward motion love;
But I by backward steps would move,
And when this dust falls to the urn,
In that state I came, return ..."

an extract from 'The Retreat' by Henry Vaughan

During his seventy years, from Jamaica's Montego Bay to Pontypool, South Wales, my dear friend Rev Alvan Richards-Clarke is pictured here, at Llanover Retreat Centre bidding 'hog roast' guests farewell.