WYSIWYG

What You See Is What You Get. This is a journal blog, an explore-blog, a bit of this and that blog. Sharing where the mood takes me. Perhaps it will take you too.

Menolyrical; Final Friday Fiction

I confess this FFF has crept up on me a little unguarded - or perhaps better to say, unprepared. I have opted, therefore, to rerun a poem that has appeared here twice before - the last time nearly five years back. A handful of you may recall it, but I hope that it will be enjoyed anew. TODAY, I am also linking with ROSY over in her BACKYARD for Nature Friday!!!

Memories of Achiltibuie and North West Scotland - a narrative poem I scribbled when I had stayed there, November 1983...it was quite popular first time posted - what think you now? Go put the kettle on. It's lengthy.

A walker enters the West coast day,
a fine, crisp, autumn morning
whose dawn has been
as sharp and clear as the purest glass.
Vastly, the air is breathed - 
hitting the lungs with the tingling
of a myriad icy shards.

The wand'rer's dress is warm and waterproof;
flasked soup and vitals packed,
camera on shoulder slung.
Mountain and hill tops lie wrapped white,
granted lacy mantles
from a sky now wiped and freshened
by the previous stormy night.

The rambler briskly sets a line
over stagnant bogs, decaying land;
heather blacked with age:
weather having turned to mires the peat.
Brief, rocky tables thrust
free of root and clod, providing
welcome rest for dampened feet.

The intruder now is pelted softly
by rounded, frozen raindrops;

albino fairies jigging.
A nearby gushing stream, enthusiastically
nearing journey's end,
forces itself upon the
saline mother of its history.

At water's edge great slanting slabs,
scored and etched as parquetted floors,
unable to defend,
slide beneath the lips of surflet waves.
Lapping liquid taking
its cumbersome toll of the
basalt with which its rim is paved.

Watching this, the walker feels warmth
from the low-slung autumn sun;
gold and silver light enthralls.
As boulders display their rainbow skins
the camera is drawn,
wielded by the observer
and the framing of time begins.

Clambering onto some higher shelves,
sheer beauty brings a halt -
glistening rock, swirling sea.
A perch is found whilst soup is drunk.
The eyes take in trawlers
(c) Yamini Ali MacLean
sheltering from their labours,
safely at rest with anchors sunk.

From that far harbour the tiring sun glides
along the seas length, which
is lichen-covered stone,
becoming jade crystal at shore's meeting.
Graceful gulls leave little
trace of passing; the shags
whip the crests to froth with their fleeting.

Moving on, this lone soul treads
a strand, brightly gold against
the surrounding duns.
Sandpipers, redshanks and oystercatchers
mingle with the councilling
gulls, mutualy ignored and
blind to the crouching watcher,

who, wishing to attend, approaches;
but a plaintive wail goes up -
"Aaaaalien! Aaaaaalien!" setting
to flight their wings. Pouring down abuse
upon the encroacher
the airborne seek solace
on the gentle swell, there to muse.

So, spotted, the walker crosses
to the farther rocky bank,
passing by a carcass,
sure this was no natural demise;
for the slender throat was torn 
and the sockets now were
empty where once had sat the eyes.

The water tugs and pulls at it
but the sandy grains fight back,
desperate for possession.
The great grey-black frame of the gull
is no longer magnificent,
for death has wrecked the wings,
wantonly turned the feathers dull.

Territorial disagreement
must have been the killer, as
infringement of mating
rights; but his place will soon be filled,
the mourning and the
memory of his passing short-lived,
as is the habit of the wild.

Further along the land's edge the
walker sits again upon
a much-barnacled stone.
Making room beneath nature's wall,
the restless ocean eats
her way inland, stretching;
causing even granite cliffs to fall.

lulled into meditation, the
watcher becomes aware of 
being watched.  A sleek head,
dog-like but ear-less, guilelessly peers
at the thinker who,
scarcely daring to breath, is
moved by this presence to shed a tear.


Diving below the surface, the 
sea dweller rises again
some distance away.
"Grey seal, grey seal, show yourself once more!"
The entranced observer calls as it sinks twice, thrice.
"Grey seal, grey seal, visit me ashore!"

The caressing plea is unheard
for the whispered words are caught
up in the homeless breeze,
freezing them, carrying them away.
Knowing this, the walker
looks up, notes the dipping 
sun which precedes the close of day.

The eyes drop to the see-saw dancer
going on regardless of
the audience it draws.
Shoulders appear as the seal grows bold;
flipping onto its back
the fins are shown and the
thick, spotted coat which bans the cold.

Too soon the time for departure
presses; the sea turns to
pewter with the gloaming.
Beauty brings its own heartfelt pain,
for it too must be left 
behind, like those moments
of sadness and sorrow and rain.

Heaving the body back uphill
the walker's mind remains
encapsuled in that scene,
at one with all. Hearing a song,
the body turns to claim
the mind; sees the one seal
become two, now the intruder is gone.

© Yamini Ali MacLean

10 comments:

  1. Seals at sea have such human sized and shaped heads, that it is occasionally frightening to have a glimpse make one think (out sailing) there is a human alone and struggling to keep head above water, distant from the shore.

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  2. It's always worth returning to Achiltibuie.

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  3. Love your poem with the beautiful photos!

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  4. OH YAM...your poem is beautiful and MY goodness you are a poet deep down in your our Scottish DNA. Absolutely beautiful one would never tire of reading it. Beautiful photos too
    Hugs Cecilia

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  5. Here's the address of our contribution - got there in the end... https://tiggerswee-blog.blogspot.com/2022/05/dust-angels.html

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  6. with the words a head that looks like a dog with no ears I knew imediately what you were seeing and I
    saw it also. this is beautiful and it is perfect for nature Friday

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  7. I'm glad you are busy enough to have to repost! It is lovely!
    I am so tired!
    (ツ) from Cottage Country Ontario , ON, Canada!

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  8. What a great poem and we enjoyed the pictures that accompany it.

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  9. What a beautiful poem, and the pictures are wonderful, I can feel the chill and hear the stream!
    I sure do miss rambling...
    Thanks for joining us for Nature Friday!!

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