What an extraordinary poetry filled trip through Scotland and Ireland. On Kathleen Jamie’s advice I visited the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh. We were in Edinburgh for the National Association of Funeral Directors Conference and being of the belief that every conference can be improved by an afternoon of poetry I headed into town for one of the afternoons.
Alas when I arrived for the discussion on Tomas Transtromer, the library was boarded up for renovations and despite my best efforts to find the group eventually abandoned the chase. Alas.
One day as she rinsed her wash from the jetty,
the bay’s cold grave rose up through her arm
and into her life.
This first verse is from Transtomer’s poem From the Island 1860 – hauntingly beautiful in the true sense of both words.
I consoled my self in a bookshop and discovered Jamie’s essays, Sightlines and Findings, so all was not lost though my bag was a little heavier.
I wonder when Australia will have a poetry library.