into darkness or light?

Day 2 of my own Poetry Week ...

... and here's a poem from Stewart Conn, who was Edinburgh's first Makar (between 2002-2005), as taken from his pictured 2022 pamphlet:


Snowdrop Walk

Skirting Inverleith pond I pass a pair of Canada
geese, black with patches of white on throat and tail,
protecting their young; and later in the Botanics
(the geriatrics, myself among them, and the electric

buggies out in force), see on a bench overlooking
the snowdrop walk two figures in white headgear
and skirts, under capacious black cloaks, clearly
the vesture of some order. My tentative greeting

receives a cheery ‘hello’, rich brown faces breaking
into luminous smiles, though their eyes are invisible
behind sunglasses. Later I meet them at the main gates
admiring a silver lime, hands folded in their laps

as if in meditation, revealing slivers of white. They
move on, leaving me wondering whether my journey
will lead to darkness or light; where they themselves
are heading; and who will be soothed by their blessing?

---

Stewart Conn (1936 - )

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