[Eadha Deora]

These stones, tumbled bones
scattered in the dark earth as
stars before the tumultuous winds.

Another gust throws itself against the heights,
fierce in its knowing, the knife of presence
unmistakably pushing weary legs and
dazzled mind beyond a horizon of unspeakable blue,

blue indistinguishable between sea and sky,
where one gives way into the arms of the other,

and all along the edge
half hidden in sprays of heather, purple, pale,
hallucinating with its own quiet grip on the world,
these markers of beauty even here in harshness,

amidst the swelling bilberries,
tang gushing forth into sweetness,
every experience encapsulated in one,

desire sired by delight

the feather of feeling floats far out over
the sea, this high place
full of clarity only claimed at the pinnacle

before walking down with all the views to behold.
Only in descent does the ancient star arrive,
our own terrible fullness burning heavily in our beings
until there is no choice left but

return.


Author's Note: Tre'r Ceiri is an ancient Iron-Age Welsh hill-fort, the most impressive in my area, and to reach it is quite a climb (though not really dangerous). The remains of about 150 huts/ stone rooms can be explored, and the whole area is covered with gorse, heather and bilberries (which are like blueberries). The smell is heavenly on autumnal or late summer days, but the wind is always biting up there! The views to the sea and all of that area of NW Wales is beath-taking, not to mention to Bronze Age cairn (burial place) and later ramparts.

[Lubesh]

hallucinating with its own quiet grip on the world,

Just that.lol

I am glad you came here well, Wales and since then we have seen what i knew it would bring out. Talk about the biting winds - the everything up there. You are always breathtaking. You make good partners with the things you encountered have encountered.

[Eadha Deora]

lol heather does actually have a fungus that grows on it with is naturally hallucinogenic ... which is why I don't wash the blossoms when I make heather mead or beer.

thank you too for the other ... indeed, i feel like being over here has brought out a lot of things, and really i am in some ways a vastly different person than i was 2 years ago, and yet more than ever the same, perhaps less muddled. i hope!

[Eadha Deora]

ps ... I hope I do the things I write about justice ... they are far better usually than I could even attempt to describe

[Lubesh]

Sheesh.....take it from me, you make me step away from complacency. I am surrounded and dont see what u bring..or could attempt to try and do it that kind of justce.

[Vorcla]

Well, honey, this one is so good it transcends words. Hard to find anything that does it justice. Your images and words, as always, truly awesome. One of your best ever.

Interesting note about the hallucinogenic effects of heather. Part of my latest story, "Dylan Vorcla: First Moon," takes place on the heather moors in Yorkshire. Might find a way to work that in somehow.

Again - truly incredible, Jenn!