Mother Stone

Mother Stone
2025
Photo series and poem

I visited the Mother Stone, a standing stone in Minchinhampton, Stroud. I've been before and felt compelled to return, this time bringing two sculptures with me - Siblings, 2024. I pushed one of the pieces through the hole and asked the stone a question.

Mother Stone

The Minchinhampton Longstone,
Said to frolic across the common at midnight, 
And heal babies passed through its ancient holes.

It refuses to be pulled or toppled, 
A gnarled and timeless tooth,
As old as any henge or barrow worth its salt.

I passed it through the birth stone - 
Between the moss-softened offerings,
And asked it ‘one or two?’

Heart to pock-marked heart, 
I listened and it told me. 
I gasped with fresh relief.