Wild Moment: Neil Spence
Neil shares a poem written after a journey in Mount Keen - Scotland's most easterly Munro.
Mount Keen
Glacial water flows through the hill’s bones.
We cross a wee burn singing on stones
not quite submerged, shining slick.
Onward and upward, pause and sip:
shocking, chilling, quenching, quick.
Stairway to heaven, the boulders climb
relentlessly past false endings.
Blessings of snow drift in sharp air,
a snowball thrown, its flight bending
through shining cloud, wreathing
in dream a silvering gleam.
Arriving at the summit we lean
in arctic wind; pushing, clinging,
two pilgrims at the edge of seeing.
Our spirits soar, we breathe, take
shelter in the heart of being.
Land sings of Mount Keen:
I am the river of light and cold springs.
I am the sky and the sun that brings
life, love and the soul’s rebirth.
I am the soil and the rock of the Earth.
© Neil Spence 2024
