Poems written by Peter Gibbs over 60 years, inspired by romance, travel, the beauty of nature, emotions and family and friends - peterspoetry.co.uk 

Fossil Urchin

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A tiny urchin lived and died

In long forgotten sea

Emergence and its passing

Consigned to history

While fathoms up above it

Jurassic beasts held sway

Unnoticed here this morsel

On bed of silt it lay

Immobile, insignificant

Now that its life was spent

Through the years it disappeared

Beneath the sediment

Compacted into solid rock

Its former form preserved

Through passing of millennia

It stayed there unobserved

And no one would have seen it

Without a twist of fate

When raised in load of gravel

Delivered to my gate

This jewel of a fossil

Just waiting to be found

Thankfully it caught my eye

There lying on the ground

Now it's a star attraction

Alongside ammonite

No longer hidden from our view

But proudly here on sight.

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