From the window I watch the engine of muirburn fired; smoke entrained by wind lays a horizontal line across the hillside, a billowing plume worthy of an express. Later in the day this man-made cloud of steam dissipates, translucent opacity playing with the rays of sunlight and adding atmosphere to attrition.
The week has since slipped into grey; spring is holding us at arm’s length. My mood has been subdued and the words harder to find. Melancholy and loss have crept into my writing as I contemplate the actions of man in even the quietest of places. It may be time to go for a walk, but before then I have a prose poem to share with you that I hope you will enjoy; I’m continuing to experiment with the form that writing can take and how this might combine with the visual.
‘A New Topography’ is now at the printers and I will begin to send copies out next week; thank you to those of you who have already ordered one. If you’re interested you’ll find full details of this new book here. It is in a sense a love letter to the idea of using words as part of a creative practice to provide an immersive experience. It is wholly rooted in this place, but has the universality of any place.
The Hills
The hills are draped
A patchwork of cloth
Worn and frayed
Wedded to contour an old bride
Escheresque in confusion
Shifting with the season
a brief moment in a long life
Collaged monochrome
Burnt spring offering
Freshening green
Stitched heather
Rusting blueberry, back to bare back
And the pallor of winter
ghost
With time the memory of us will fade
The marks pale into a short history
We are in the wind dust
An irritant to make the eyes water
Blink often enough and we will be gone
A short moment in the sediment of time
Escheresque refers to the patterns created by muirburn - the seasonal burning of moorland vegetation to encourage new growth - that are so prominent here, and brings us back to the image at the start of this letter and the view from the window.
I chose to arrange my words vertically on a photographic bed of grey lichen, reaching for the sky.
Thank you for joining me and for reading this. If you’ve enjoyed it, please let me know. A share or even a recommendation for FLOW would be greatly appreciated. There is also an option to become a paid subscriber if you value and would like to further support my writing here.
You’ll find more image rich writing in previous posts on FLOW’s home page. My photography and mixed media art live here on my website.
Until next week,
Great Photo at the top. Beautiful.
What a lovely prose poem and post. Thank you Michela for sharing your vision of the beauty around you.