Tom and Laurie Clark at Woodwick House
photo : © Alistair Peebles
you will have to go
all around it
to see it
have to stay
with it
to know it
a breeze
of small birds
moving through
birch leaves
a stone from shade
carried for a mile
cool in the hand
a breath is enough
to fan the ripples
of water that run
deliciously in
around dwarf juniper
slopes of sunlight
slopes of snow
sit together
above the scree
innocent
of incident
what you feel
you can contain
what you see
you will become
one song of water
picking up
from another
the slopes
constantly
spilling water
as you climb
it pours
around you
rushing, dashing
leaping to find
its level
whatever is lifted
by the wind is dropped
again into a calm
slightly ahead of itself
if you stretch out
in the long grasses
your weight is distributed
over the headland
to rest as lightly
on the crushed grasses
as sky on sea
once again
for the first time
morning
T H O M A S A. C L A R K
__________________________
selected from
The Hundred Thousand Places
Carcanet 2009
Thomas A. Clark lives in the small fishing village of Pittenweem
on the east coast of Scotland.
http://northings.com/2009/09/29/yellow-and-blue-thomas-a-clark-laurie-clark-porteous-brae-gallery-stromness-orkney/
