Echo of Stac Pollaidh

from the ragged summit of Stac Pollaidh

down to the point of invisibility 

I wish to lose myself here in this sacred place 

which has possessed me

oh, I climbed here huff-puffin a human being 

like all the rest making our way fast

past little bits of gum and cigarette ends

my heart pounding on the scramble

to find this, a place where wolves open the sky

shall you not open your eyes

there's nothing that can prepare you

for the everlasting ken

to breathe like this inhaling water from below

like a fish yet to be swimming among the low clouds

blessed as the stars, yes, of course

yet a Highlander's measure more in the knowing 

that She owns me 

in surrender to be nothing 

I suppose like death's howl takes you

awakening everyone but the dead, being you

or perhaps as the promise of The Way suggests

this crag I know without hearing its word

is beyond the reach of death for death cannot touch it

and maybe as promised ourselves doesn’t touch us at last

be it known we are here together as friends

as heaven is known when you see it

never wish to leave it for the heavy airs beneath

cry like a baby to leave Her arms

to waste away here at what’s been brought to us

having ascended wish the whole earth

to stay and to go on to nothing nothing

to be the echo

~ Girard Tournesol
http://www.thewatershedjournal.org/