Fireside poets

Eck & Ken, 'Basho' & 'Sora'

editing the road north by the fireside at Dunira

an audio recording of the poem features in the exhibition, Walk On,

Forty Years of the Art of Walking. It will be available to the public soon.

so, when was it

I first had that dream

of roving the glens

up and down

guided by Basho's Oku?

some morning

I will wake on Pillow Hill

with a matinal willow

warbling at the window

books on the bed

my heart in a fankle

to see clouds and mountains 

in the far-away

to be on the road   north

where paths of moss and crottle

follow peaty waters

some morning I will cross over

to the Kingdom

shrouded in mist

tracking back

to the origin of things

sipping tea from a shell

I will how learn to tell

burns that run

lochan to lochan

from the wide river

that flows freely

to the sea

I will turn down 

some other glen

east-west into low sun

scooping shelter

from a mountain wind

to plant two rowans

by a white croft

waiting for a boy 

whose supple hand

will gently twist

the pliant saplings

so they grow   entwined

photograph Alistair Peebles, 2011