August 19th, 2008 Doug
Daed-traa
I go to the rockpool at the slack of the tide
to mind me what my poetry’s for.
It has its ventricles, just like us -
pumping brine, like bull’s blood, a syrupy flow.
It has its theatre -
hushed and plush.
It has its Little Shop of Horrors.
It has its crossed and dotted monsters.
It has its cross-eyed beetling Lear.
It has its billowing Monroe.
I go to the rockpool at the slack of the tide
to mind me what my poetry’s for.
For monks, it has barnacles
to sweep broth as it flows, with fans,
grooming every cubic millimetre.
It has its ebb, the easy heft of wrack from rock,
like plastered, feverish locks of hair.
It has its flodd,
It has its welling god
with puddled, podgy face and jaw.
It has its holy hiccup.
Its minute’s silence
daed-traa.
I go to the rockpool at the slack of the tide
to mind me what my poetry’s for.
Jen Hadfield, Nigh-No-Place (Bloodaxe Books, 2008)
www.bloodaxebooks.com
Jen Hadfield’s sketchbook notes for collaboration with Douglas Robertson
Douglas Robertson’s sketchbook notes for collaboration with Jen Hadfield
Poem reproduced by kind permission of Jen Hadfield and Bloodaxe Books.
Posted in Work in progress |
August 17th, 2008 Doug
‘Martin Martin’s Journal’
One of my favorite books to read when I’m traveling around the Scottish islands is Martin martin’s Journals.
Written in 1675, some of the accounts are rather ‘fantastic’ in their descriptions of folklore and tall tales.
The four assemblages in this sequence (below) tell of some of the stranger tales discovered by the Skye factor on his travels.
Scrabber
This tale came from St.Kilda, where it was believed that the Scrabbers (a local name for Black Guillemots)
got their food from inside the bellies of whales.
They also believed that the birds fed on Sorrell, as it was often found around their nests.
King Of The Herring
This image was based on the folklore of the Herring King, which was believed to lead the shoals of fish around the coast.
It was said that it was unlucky to keep such a fish if it were caught, so fishermen were advised to throw it back. It was
also said that if blood had been shed on the coast in battles, the fish would not swim in that area.
Magnus and The Ladykirk Stone
The stone, which can be seen in the chapel on South Ronaldsay, Orkney, was said to have been used by
Saint Magnus to cross from the mainland, over the Pentland Firth, to the island. His footprints can be seen on the top of the stone.
The Gallan Whale
This piece is based on an account from the Isle of Lewis of a whale attacking fishing boats and devouring the crew.
Three other boats that rescued the one sole survivor supposedly witnessed this event.
Posted in Studio |
August 16th, 2008 Doug
“River Tay (The Tay Whale)” 2007
“River Tay ” (detail)
Posted in Uncategorized |
August 14th, 2008 Doug
Sketchbook working drawing for Donald S. Murray’s poems.
THE GANNETS OBSERVE DAEDALUS AND ICARUS
(after Auden)
They would have been indifferent to it.
These two men stripping plumage from dead birds
slipping feathers inside robes
before returning quietly to the world
where their existence had been caged.
And then too bird fat
sealing wings tight together
till they stretched in a giant span that
allowed these men the dream of flight,
the giddying sense of breaking free
from earthbound guards in mimicry
of birds that swirled and eddied over sea.
They would have been indifferent to it
These men balancing on ramparts.
The clench and tense of muscle.
The drum and clamour of their hearts.
And then that trust they placed in feathers,
the weightlessness of plume and quill
that lifted flesh to bright corona
but then an instant later, will
flail, fold, descend, disintegrate.
till that young man plucked by gravity
plunges till his dream is dashed
in a splash and small disturbance on the sea.
They would have been indifferent to it
- our human, vain fragility.
Gannet head study.
Poem reproduced by kind permission of Donald S. Murray.
Posted in Work in progress |
