This week’s poem inspired by a long-weekend visit to Norway, Kristiansand, Stavanger and nearby Ålgard, and including lots of time spent walking, climbing, driving, sailing in the stunning landscape.

Autumn in Ålgard

 

Time written in colours;

rocks, trees, grass, autumn

enlivens cool greens of summer’s growth,

last extravagance before winter white.

Foliage transformed to yellow,

orange, brown, black, gold,

hidden-away glamour of lichens transferred

to full-scale hillsides in ochre, umber.

Pallet of an artist obsessed with sunlight and overripe berries

 

History written in rocks;

movement of tectonic plates,

flow of glaciers, rush of rivers, pounding of water.

Smash of boulder against resounding rock,

squeeze of roots in fissures,

decay of matter, swell and burst of seeds,

metallic tinkle of ice forming on cliffs.

Split, shift, shiver of inorganic geography.

Playground of a block-piling, toppling, tossing toddler

 

Life written in water;

a sweating body, wet soil,

leaves, bogs, marshes soak and seep.

Trickling rills, puddles, streams

Sounds of invisible rustling under leaves.

Waterfalls, lakes, rivers, fjords and far away

over rocky mountain-heads, the sea,

the ocean, eternity.

Dreams of an ancient, ever-thirsty planet.

 

Ålgard, Norway, 2016