I’ll be performing this line, among other lines, this weekend for the Wigtown Book Festival, Scotland. What intrigues me is this little pebble I saw in this sculptor’s garden on route in regional Dumfries & Galloway.  This poem was written to share.

Earth Embryo

a carefully constructed planet

in slate

swelling in the garden

sheep snuggled into sinew

softening tree-root

hill-side

 

The signature of some bumble bee

organ-pipes highly strung

between the tips of two firs.

Bathed in birdsong

someone hammers something

somewhere, a tiny insect mows

the neighbour’s lawn

far away. At my foot, a smooth

liver-shaped pebble

has two little grooves for open eyes

blinking, I imagine, if you look down long enough

to consider your toes

 

Somebody told me

he is a drystane dyker by trade. By art

he is folding rock and chiseling rope,

carving loss into a heavy whole

sculpting stone to hug itself, warmly

chipping solace into soul

behind the house

http://www.spring-fling.co.uk/blog/2016/09/earth-embryo-by-skye-loneragan/

Skye Loneragan is the 2016 Writer in Residence for Spring Fling and Wigtown Book Festival.

This two part residency involves Skye visiting studios throughout SF 2016 (28-30 May 2016), sharing poetry across distances with those on the Spring Fling studio tour & performing to those on the shuttle buses. Over the next couple of weeks we will be publishing some of Skye’s poems here on the blog on the lead up to WBF 2016. Skye will be performing her poetry at Wigtown Book Festival (23 Sept – 2 Oct 2016).