A birthday poem for Kittycallum

[anteros_lmc]

Northern Trail ~ Kenneth White 1. Dark waters, home of greylag goose, blackthroated diver salmon, charr and trout - after ten days' drought the rain has returned a grey smir obscuring the loch, smooring the hills. 2. Chill dawn air this rock: those Ice Age scratchings and there a hillock a fox's lookout (the grass has greened with his droppings.) 3. Birch grove silver-blurred in the rain the bleached trunk of a dead pine deer-print in the peaty ground. 4. Burn water grey club moss tight on the stones and a single arctic black-stamened white-petalled flower. 5. Down there along the rock and scree a ptarmigan makes it over the ridge.

Comments

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

I feel that I am right there. Deceptive in simplicity. Glorious.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Amazing isn't it? There is a clarity to Kenneth White's writing that is unsurpassed. In fact one of his collections of poetry is called Handbook to the Diamond Country. He just takes you right out there.

[charliecochrane.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. That could only be Scotland.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

This is definitely Scotland, though when White writes about northern latitudes and western littorals, as he frequently does, its often hard to tell if he's referring to Scotland, where he was born, or northern Brittany, where he lives. He's an amazing writer, both in poetry and prose, as you would expect from the professor of 20th century poetics at the Sorbonne!

[kittycallum.livejournal.com]

Wow! Thank you -- what a perfect thing to wake up to this morning (I'm a day behind in everything right now). Such a wonderful sense of presence in those words. And I must work 'smooring' into my vocabulary; I'd never heard it before but it is one of those excellent words that defines itself.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad you like this! I wasn't sure if you'd had a chance to read any of White's poetry yet. There's an expansive clarity to his poetry that is just breathtaking.

I must work 'smooring' into my vocabulary; I'd never heard it before but it is one of those excellent words that defines itself.
Heh, you're right! Smoor does rather define itself :) If you look is up it's usually defined as smother, but somehow that doesn't quite have the right connotations. I can't think of smoor without thinking of ashes. Smooring a fire means covering it with ashes to keep the cinders glowing overnight so it can be built up again in the morning.

Oh, and I hope you had a lovely birthday :)