92 Counties!

I know you were not expecting this but to be honest neither was I. As I turned through the pages of Carol Ann Duffy’s Collected poems I found her poem Counties amusing. Now to further complicate things I will introduce you to Munro-Bagging – climbing hills in Scotland over 3000ft. – named after Sir Hugh Munro who charted these peaks in the late 1800s. Well in the USA some folks seek to complete the challenge of visiting every State of which there are 50! USA counties are innumerable, well actually there are 3,143 plus another 100 if you count those within the US territories. A long time would be needed to bag these counties! Duffy in her poem does not attempt to name all 92 United Kingdom counties, but she makes a fun attempt. So here at the beginning of 2024 I share this poem just for the fun of it. Enjoy – there will be no test!

The Counties
But I want to write to an Essex girl,
greeting her warmly.
But I want to write to a Shropshire lad,
brave boy, home from the army,
and I want to write to the Lincolnshire Poacher
to hear of his hare
and to an aunt in Bedfordshire
who makes a wooden hill of her stair.
But I want to post a rose to a Lancashire lass,
red, I’ll pick it,
and I want to write to a Middlesex mate
for tickets for cricket.
But I want to write to the Ayrshire cheesemaker
and his good cow
and it is my duty to write to the Queen at Berkshire
in praise of Slough.
But I want to write to the National Poet of Wales at Ceredigion
in celebration
and I want to write to the Dorset Giant
in admiration
and I want to write to a widow in Rutland
in commiseration
and to the Inland Revenue in Yorkshire
in desperation.
But I want to write to my uncle in Clackmannanshire
in his kilt
and to my scrumptious cousin in Somerset
with her cidery lilt.
But I want to write to two ladies in Denbighshire,
near Llangollen
and I want to write to a laddie in Lanarkshire,
Dear Lachlan …
But I want to write to the Cheshire Cat,
returning its smile.
But I want to write the names of the Counties down
for my own child
and may they never be lost to her …
all the birds of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire..

Prayer:
Holy Lord,
as a New Year comes quietly into play
the sun and the moon in their place,
the stars sparkling in the night sky
and tides and waves make their advance and retreat
like clockwork.
Like all the years before so to this one will have
its share of disruptions and dislocations.
I pray that your Spirit will calm me in those moments of chaos
and give me courage in those moments of change and uncertainty.
I pray that I will welcome those moments of joy as I welcome the rising
and setting sun.
May night and day and day and night dance to the rhythm of all that is Holy.
May I wake and sleep, work and play, walk and run keeping in step
to the rhythm of Holy grace and Holy mercy. And so the year begins,
and your Spirit, O Lord, invites me to venture across new horizons, please
steady my step and support my soul that I might share your grace and mercy
with all whom I meet along the days,
weeks and months, that add to another year. Amen.