Life Mask

It's amazing that the area where this picture was taken is somewhere I had worked for nearly 20 years yet I never knew these sculptures of famous Scottish poets existed. This particular one is of the Scottish/Nigerian poet called Jackie Kay and as well as the image of her there is also a beautiful poem called Life Mask (for Julia Darling)

When the senses come back in the morning,

the nose is a mouth full of spring;

the mouth is an earful of birdsong;

the eyes are lips on the camomile lawn;

the ear is an eye of calm blue sky.


When the broken heart begins to mend,

the heart is a bird with a tender wing,

the tears are pear blossom blossoming,

the shaken love grows green shining leaves.

the throat doesn’t close, it is opening


like a long necked swan in the morning,

like the sea and the river meeting,

like the huge heron’s soaring wings:

I sat up with my pale face in my hands

and all of a sudden it was spring.