Skelwith Force – Kerry Darbishire

Skelwith Force

She’s dreamed all summer of this moment:
…….the guts to carve through earth’s muscle,
veins and bone, keen as a sculptor’s hands
…….drawn by a harvest moon, cloud-swollen,
bleeding sediment, always running with the grain.
…….She’s singing out her heart, hammering away
under a glassy sky. But this is the tricky part:
…….a millenia of rock can be stubborn as a dam
clotted with blood-shot leaves, steadfast as a heron
…….cut from grey – all day edging for trout.
And now hurled deep in stone she knows it will take only hours
…….to break down aeolian deposits, silt and clay,
she has the tools to undermine roots, slice stratum –
…….nothing stops her giddy swell notching pockets and valleys,
polishing the curve of a limb to a broad sheen, working
……..bridges, villages, fields and lanes to a clean body of marsh
…………………………………………………………………with a night’s harsh rain.

Kerry Darbishire lives in Cumbria. Her collections include: A Lift of Wings 2014, and Distance Sweet on my Tongue, 2018. A biography – Kay’s Ark, 2016 She has won several competitions including shortlisted in the Bridport Prize 2017, and magazines and anthologies.