Blue Bottle Journal
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • Masthead
  • Press
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • Masthead
  • Press

Blue Bottle Journal
poetry with sting

Southern Land

28/2/2021

1 Comment

 
Picture
by Helen Loughlin

I’m dreaming of driving over the Forth Road Bridge with you,
and Curly Wurly panting and laughing on the back seat. I see
the snow over Fife and the long road ahead looking to Sutherland.
Oh Sutherland, your cold recesses, your sad battles, your defeated
Romans and the cold, deep innards of your lochs and your lands
and reaching Scots Pines. Where I saw your Pictish symbol stones,
the Migdale Hoard, and mighty Suilven rising from your still rock.
Crossing the Firths along the East coast to get to you sustain me here.

Now as I walk the streets of Camperdown and Newtown these hot,
stolen streets and land shadowed by the Moreton Bay Figs
buckling the pavements, negotiating the waves of the buttress roots
only slightly defacing the paths and, in places, defining them, looking for
a way onwards. I love these trees and their march along this East coast
where the tale of the route begins over and over and seems never to end.

Helen Loughlin is a poet living in Sydney. Her work has been published in journals including Southerly and Hermes and she's edited a number of magazines including Phoenix Review. She's currently working on her first collection, City of the Dead.
1 Comment
James warbrick
1/3/2021 10:26:16 pm

Loved it ,have traveled many years in Sutherland and always in awe so I recognise the feeling of resonating scenery and memories past and present. Enjoyed the feeling of sharing a road trip which is part of someone’s life going forward and seeing things in retrospect when facing the next part of life in a completely different place with its own memories.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Blue Bottle

    Seeking words with sizzle, poetry that wraps us in burning ribbons and won't let go. Send us your best!

    Archives

    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photo used under Creative Commons from John Donges