Near Hadrian's Wall
(About 1968)
And I picked my way across the broken wilderness.
And there were thorn trees.
Tears I hadn't cried stood in my eyes.
Then suddenly I entered the shadow
And it was silent.
My bare feet felt the prickly grass
And the smooth stone.
Out in the sunshine it was warmer
Though the wind blew.
The sky above was blue and white and grey
And the earth was solid
And the rocks were still.
Back under the rocks
In the shadow
Jacob erected his pillar of stone
And cried aloud to God.
But away in the fields the straight tractor ploughed and murmured.
I had gone up one afternoon along Hadrian's Wall. As I recall, it was early Autumn and the weather was lovely. I was there either for the geology or for rock-climbing - I can't remember which, but I had a tremendous affinity with the rocks and the landscape. I felt a delicious wave of solitude come over me and determined to enjoy it. Out came the paper, down went the words. It still takes me back, to the feelings if not the details of the landscape, but I remember the tractor working the furrows and still love the last phrase!