Inspired by David Oxtaby’s masterpiece “The Shambles”

A glorious glow
It’s aura on show
An ancient mellowness
A bygone throw
An heirloom that sports
Such venerable thoughts
Anachronistic
Minds eyes just feel
A candour a splendour
As spirits reveal
A manifestation
Unfolding before
A real revelation
No soul dare ignore

Plain as a pikestaff
It’s relevance here
The limelight frequenting
A historic fear
Of those who have rambled
The cobbles and found
Where The Myriad flesh
Purveyors abound

And how David’s lenses
His elucidation
I just feel the substance
It’s a celebration
To drift back to when
Yorkshire’s woodlands
Were cleared
That’s when these
Buildings would have appeared
The meandering alleys
The Shambles born
Where so many butchers found
Their new dawn

All kinds of meat shops
Resourceful they were
Just imagine the clutter
Providing the spur
To life as it was then
Shorter by far
From warring and famine
And the Black Death
That scar

That took many souls
But what we still see
Is a bounteous glow
The Shambles still be
Providing great wealth
Sharing it’s face
A true inspiration
At today’s pace

And it has been captured
By a spirited man
With a wonderful art form
A lens that does pan
Into the past
Across centuries, he
Captures the spirit
And true ancestry