Ullswater

Morning spent recovering from the long trek and sorting the spare room and then late afternoon I put the bike in the back and headed over to Pooley and cycled along to Howtown and Fusedale and had a dip at the old swim spot on my way back.
B arrived after 10pm.

I hadn’t realised that Kathleen Raine had lived up at Martindale for a few years.

ON LEAVING ULLSWATER - Kathleen Raine

The air is full of a farewell –
Deserted by the silver lake
Lies the wide world, overturned.
Cities rise where mountains fell,
The furnace where the phoenix burned.
The lake is in my dream,
The tree is in my blood,
The past is in my bones,
The flowers of the wood
I love with long past loves.
I fear with many deaths
The presence of the night,
And in my memory read
The scripture of the leaves –
Only myself how strange
To the strange present come!