Excuse and no excuse!

Following an unfortunate incident in Crickley Hill Country Park yesterday morning (involving several dogs and a wet patch of grass) I'm now the frustrated owner of a splinted left wrist! I have decided this is a splendid excuse when it comes to housework, gardening etc. but it leaves no excuse when it comes to getting down to putting pen to paper ....

Back in May this year I spent a fascinating day at a poetry workshop run by the BlueGate Poets in Swindon at the Museum and Art Gallery there. The tutor was Tamar Yoseloff and we were working from the excellent modern art collection the gallery houses. Shortly both on-line and print anthologies will be coming out with the poems inspired by the day. Here's a preview, with my poem based on Kyffin Williams painting "The Dark Lake", a dramatic portrayal of the landscape around Llanberis in Snowdonia.

 

Intrusion

 We are interlopers

in this barren place,

hushed by echoes

of quarrymen’s rough shod feet

striking out past

unplumbed silent depths

on grim grey paths

of splintered slate,

the winter morning

numb with cold.

Fashioned from time-worn stone,

moulded by mountain ways,

still in death

they command this land.

Their absence haunts

each cwm. each crag -

and taunts our timorous footsteps

when we trespass in their slag.

(Copyright Gill Garrett 2013)

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