Tools of the Trade

When we arrived back after our few days walking the Wales Coastal Path (with a gratifying further forty miles under our belts) there was news of a poem I had submitted for "Tools of the Trade". Each year, when Scottish medical students graduate, they are given an anthology of poems relevant to their future practice, many written by health care practitioners. As a now retired lecturer in nursing studies, I was delighted to hear that mine had been chosen to appear on the Scottish Poetry Library website.

The title "Tools of the Trade" reminds me of a visit we made on the last day of our walking trip to the Margam Stones Museum, which houses the most amazing collection of memorial stones from the ninth century onwards. They have been brought to the museum (a Victorian schoolroom building) from various locations in Wales and are beautifully displayed. The most impressive was the huge wheel cross of Conbelin but my favourite was the smaller cross of Grutne, a tenth century memorial with the inscription "In the name of God the most high this cross of Christ was erected by Grutne for the soul of Ahest". Given the limitations on the "tools of the trade" all those centuries ago, the intricacies of the techniques are so impressive. Research into who Ahest may have been have so far proved fruitless but - as always! - there must be a story there ....