Dartmoor running through my veins
Dartmoor is a wilderness of  irreplaceable historic value, she is wonderfully wild with an undercurrent of mystical, magical movement. Breathing her atmospheric air makes me feel so alive and free.
She whispers her tales of bygones , entrapped by her beauty and character I listen to her as  she unleashes her true self.
I hear tales of  haggard witches, suicidal lovers, feudal families and of a land once worked by moormens frost-bitten, loving hands, now lying in desolate dereliction of rot and decay.
At her heart lies endless craggy peaks and tors ablaze with yellow gorse and heathery hues, mile upon mile of peat bogs and mires notorious for the lives they once claimed.
I delight in her endless surprises, her bronze age settlements and tinners workings, where many a  local man toiled until death took them.
Wistmans wood, with its gnarled ancient oaks, growing beards of lichen. Babbling brooks meet streams and rivers as they intertwine on their outward journey to the sea.
We have come to know her so well, she is in my blood, running through my veins. I know in my lifetime I will never attain enough of her knowledge and I crave for learning as she unleashes her secrets to me one by one.
                     Melissa  Williams

            Dartmoor sheep
I have never understood quite fully
What makes a Dartmoor sheep so woolly.
With backdrop of natures gorse ablazing
Hour upon hour they stand there grazing.
No intelligence abounds their blanketed brain
I'd like to know what keeps them sane.
I study them through misty air,
In return blank oblong eyes just stare.
No matter what weather, they stand forlorn.
Don't make me come back as a sheep if reborn.
         Melissa Williams

          The lost lamb
Oh mother where are you ? You hear me baa,
An answering bleat comes back from afar.
I stand confused forlorn and still,
To see you running down the hill.
Trauma forgotten, incident past,
My milky dinner's here at last.
My mother releases a mournful shudder,
As I attack yet another udder,
With a contented baaaa
  Melissa Williams

A LITTLE ABOUT MYSELF   
Hi, my name is Melissa , I was born in Devon 29 years ago, I live with my family in Okehampton, We moved here in July 97 to be closer to Dartmoor. Dartmoor has always been a magical place to me, even as a child I had romantic thoughts about her. It seems quite apt that my husband proposed to me while out walking on the moor. I have since become disabled, hence I have had more time on my hands to put my thoughts and feelings about the moor on paper. Dartmoor holds a truly special place in my heart, her unpredictability , her wildness and her scenery holds me spellbound. Within the next few pages I hope to share with you a greater understanding of the moods and qualities of a place unlike any other I have encountered.
        Melissa Williams.