a thought that has no end

I know this is a terrible photo - there's a much better 'version' here :-)

The extra snap, is though much clearer; and is of my Dad's garden (in Salsburgh) taken when I was over visiting early this morning! ---

--- but, returning to the bad snap; I did mention a couple of days ago that I was due to attend an event at the Scottish Poetry Library - which was in furtherance of my ongoing interest in the life and work of Nan Shepherd!

Well - earlier this evening  her friend and literary executor, Erlend Clouston (who is also in the terrible photo!), gave a *very entertaining* (and informative) talk about Nan's life and influences ...

... and, here's one of Nan's poems, taken from her only published volume:


Real Presence

Clear as the endless ecstasy of stars
That mount for ever on an intense air;
Or running pools, of water cold and rare,
In chiselled gorges deep amid the scaurs,
So still, the bright dawn were their best device,
Yet like a thought that has no end they flow;
Or Venus, when her white unearthly glow
Sharpens like awe on skies as green as ice:

To such a clearness love is come at last,
Not disembodied, transubstantiate,
But substance and its essence now are one;
And love informs, yet is the form create.
No false gods now, the images o’ercast,
We are love’s body, or we are undone.

---

Nan Shepherd (1893-1981)

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