Spar Cave, isle of skye - Poem

Spar Cave, Isle of Skye

   The pull beneath the water running over stone
   revokes you, thresholds, links this living body
   to inorganic pasts. `The original unit survives
   in the salt' breeze blowing now a world away,
   within Spar Cave. I wish it could be clear, easily
   as I lean down, push my hand down, through sheets
   of running water, grip the quilted limestone, see
   the water up to my wrist, a bangle of ice: solid,
   petrified flesh, frozen desire, primal alteration
   in the zones that lie inside us and the cave there
   in the stone. So our love keeps, travels with us?
   I'll carry it forever. I speak with your voice.

Alan Riach, formerly Associate Professor of English and Pro-Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, is now Head of the Department of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow. Riach's books include Clearances, First & Last Songs, Open Return, This Folding Map, and a critical study, & Hugh MacDiarmid Epic Poetry. Riach is also the series editor of the collected works of Hugh MacDiarmid, published by Carcanet Press.

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