I MET ISABELLA DE FORTIBUS COMING THROUGH THE WOOD

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It combines Dartmoor woodland and actual history with folklore and imagination. Isabella de Forttibus was the richest and most powerful woman in England in the mid 13th Century (the Countess of Countess Weir in Exeter.) Local legend attributes the founding of Wistman's Wood to Isabella (actually remains of ancient indigenous woodland.)
Poem and reading, original artwork, music, and photographic images all by Roger Philip Dennis (apart from historical images given details in the credits.)

From the poem WISTMANS, published in INVOCATIONS AND PORTRAITS www.wyldepublications.com

Wistmans

I met Isabella de Fortibus coming through the wood
her silk gown green from moss and lichen hoar in her hair:

“Oh I am sick at heart and would lay me down and die
from trying to make count of all the trees growing in my wood!
Every time a tally’s made, there’s a baying of the hounds
with cries of ‘Whisht!’ to right and ‘Whisht!’ to left
and the Dark Man shrilling on his knife-sharp pipe
and in the darkness of his passing my mind is wiped slate-clean.

I wake on dawn’s hillside with all my count to make
fearing that my trees are seedlings ripped up in the storm
High Willhays sends to scour his scarred and heathy moor
with his henchman Herne driving all before into Dart’s cold arms
and oh I am soaked to the skin and oh so tired of life
from trying to take count of all the trees growing in the wood!

Yes I was Queen in Castle Carisbrooke and Lady of the Wight
Countess of Devon, and of Aumale, and Holder of the Honours
of Skipton, Holderness, and Brunswick, from Hampshire
and from Yorkshire my income came in pounds by the millions
I banked with Riccardi of Lucca, knew the Statutes of The Realm,
not Edward King of England, not Edmund Crouchbank, not
Simon de “Mighty” Montfort could lay a hand on me and mine
but all my wealth and power turns to Dartmoor mist
and oh! I am skin, and oh! I am bone
in the counting of the trees that grow in Wistmans Wood."