I have fallen and found the enchanted world

Nan Shepherd was born on this day (11th February) in 1893 - I simply adore her writing, and was lucky enough to be given a copy of Charlotte Peacock's edited collection of Shepherd's work a few years ago ...

... the pictured (2018) volume really is a treasure-trove of previously unpublished work from Shepherd - here's such a favourite (previously unpublished) poem taken from within:


Achiltibuie

Here on this edge of Europe I stand on the edge of being.
Floating on light isle after isle takes wing.
Burning blue are the peaks, rock that is older than thought,
And the sea turns blue --- or is it the air between? ---
They merge, they take one another upon them.
I have fallen through time and found the enchanted world.
Where all is beginning.
The obstinate rocks
Are a fire of blue, a pulse of power, a beat
In energy, the sea dissolves
And I too melt, am timeless, a pulse of light.

October 4th 1950

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Nan Shepherd (1893-1981)

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