A HANDSOME little booklet entitled Journey, featuring one continuous poem by John Horn, was short-listed for the latest Callum Macdonald Memorial Award for poetry pamphlets, run by the National Library of Scotland (Hestan Isle Press). Here is the start of the journey’s watery momentum from orbs of dew, to river, to sea.

JOURNEY

In the beginning

cool air bequeaths

small orbs of dew

and gentle tears

of morning rain.

This is where rills

commence their little turbulence

where space and time

curl small waters together

where particles of liquid light

conjoin to rivulets

portending greater flow.

Here is the womb of rivers

whose falling water would become

seared beneath a too hot sun

abandoning the land

leaving only deserts of the heart.

But in temperate climes

the low burn

glistens an evening sky

rippling around low stones

although it can torrent fields

emptying them of livestock.

Alongside a small foam

at eventide

a curlew calls

its cry mourning down

to a meagre nest

whilst a dog barks faintly

Across distant fields. . .