Look North: A Poem in 5 Parts

A Work in Progress
145

A Corner

Nobody waits at the corner where rock was quarried

where a stone pillar stands on a scarp rising from moorland 

where a traveler must turn or drop off a cliff edge

blundered over bones below are of fallen sheep 

Should someone be waiting don’t hike there alone

This landscape is steeped with ambush and anguish

Trust nobody not birds they will warn you’re approaching

Tread carefully for adders on this path stretch out  

Look north mostly north for that’s where you’re going

If you find your way down from this escarpment

a gravel road at its base the foresters made

you must cross over and stride onto moorland again

Standing by the pillar you can see where you’re going

Which path to ponder or should you think of returning

Or will you still be there if I come that way again

Where nobody’s waiting where a stone pillar stands

*

A Curlew

A curlew cries off in the distance and all with ears wait

for an answering cry but time waits no longer 

for our eyes see why the curlew cried

where movement along an unpaved road stirs dust

now a pheasant croaks all the moor is aware

taut time encrusted fears attend a traveler below

within sight of our eyes and technology in the sky

all that matters is survival both sides agree

preparing to stop an intruder’s arrival

is it identifiable does it move with intent?

questions preprogrammed up in the sky

is it an ambulance is that a white flag?

whatever it was it didn’t pass muster

smoke rises over trees where carrion crows cluster

*

Into Darkness

Dark space ahead 

recesses

if entered where exit

stone troughs out of wind

where eagles shudder

hard here

hands burn when stones touch

while wingbeats shatter cold air

out there   I will tell you

what moves   you

move   my words   infesting

your brain   echoes in your brain

Fire And Shadow

I have named each eye

& to left

and to right

                                     

cold now

trying to stop heat loss

seal in warmth

I speak words warm

named DUST  ASH

      CINDER

named ghosts

named terror

fear   friends   enemies

dwelt here

to her I gave

names that are secret

who walks over wet leaves

sodden twigs that still snap

lay half awake

a spasm shook me

liquid trickled from my anus

a kind of dysentery

if I turned in sleep

another spasm shook me

sweat on my forehead

exhausted as the wasp

with sagging abdomen

flesh I'm coupled to

crippled by

hollows in hard stone

gravel like millet

I reached out in the dark

she flinched

she went away

cold now

alone

who names these things

fatherless   childless

who hears

who moves

in this dark

who alive in this hole

where eagles shudder

no need to describe

the wind hits harder

stone troughs out of wind

where wingbeats shatter cold air

blind poet of the sacred

guide me out of the maelstrom

men moving in spheres

in songs of themselves

make me timeless

like bright flames blaze

in a black sky

I sang to you then 

of tree's qualities

of logs

of riverside raft making

of berries of blaze-making

all the virtues of wood

at midnight

sang songs of the sun

I have named

        DUST  ASH

        CINDER

named ghosts

named terror

fear   friends    enemies    dwelt here

 

time glides forward

its eyes on the dying

i have named

now they are gone 

wings beat patiently away

my bruised flesh

clings to the bone

broken by stones

by crawling through passageways

tunnels no higher than a dog's head

in these caves

ants acidify in droplets of carbon

tendrils of brain

in chambers of limestone

hard here

hands burn when stones touch

sting

like acid

in my eyes

tears

I crawl on

I cannot stay

timeless my songs

murmurs of oxygen

between waves

when the sea leans back

to rush forward

you are deep

you are silent

no flood of water 

can drag me back to you

born

gasping

still not free

brands blaze in the darkness

a long line of shapes

flames flickering in a chain

came to destroy me

resting in my dreams

of Earth turning

moon turning

sun falling

in shadow

bright flames in a chain

carried over the hills

there were thirteen

& the night mare

cantered to meet you

with words I held you

killed you 

with words

who alive now

who alive in this hole

here in my fastness

while the Earth still turning

you crawl on

you cannot stay

there are white stars

and beyond them 

a dawn   a brightness

there are black stars

and beyond them

an emptiness   an absence

we crawl on

into absence   emptiness

she stooped

lifted me

dripping 

wet to her breast

nursed me

cradled the Earth

in her arms

as it shivered

grew heavy

slipped

slid from her arms

& to left  

and to right

cold now

trying to stop heat loss

looking for warmth

looking for heat source

for food   for fuel

for creatures that move

I speak words warm

timeless my songs

murmurs of oxygen

but words won't warm me

nor stones

nor cold

I heard you when you moved

forever and ever

you moved to explain

& I heard you

buried you

Orion

had swung 

west

*

Into Light

Daylight came to awake him to a welcome ache

That old friend dating from a physical mistake

Likely something grasped then pulled out with muscles taut

On a cold spring morning when exercise was fraught

A left shoulder ache proving he was still alive

At a stage in his life when things start to jibe

As usual watchful he rose slowly to stand

Ever ready to steady with an outstretched hand

Though on land he might head butt a jibing boom

Swinging metaphorically bringing his doom

No need for spectacles with both cataracts gone

Looking past an island to a far horizon 

Increasingly confident he’ll travel overseas

Stepping towards sunlight slanting low through the trees

*

About Turn

Grandiose to think they’ll all be there waiting 

where the stone pillar stands

Some may have traveled from far distant lands

They could be waiting there now

Standing in massed bands

I’ve no obligation to go there

Before being cued off stage 

I’m playing my next part so they might take umbrage

                                                  Offering portage, a sort of STXIT

Where the stone pillar stands

I’m needed alive I don’t need portage

I’ve no need to hurry not eat my viands

  I’ve thrown in with brigands

My weight though negligible is nought if I’m dead

Alive I contribute my ligands

I’m going my way and not to the exit

There’s stuff to be done by our brigand band

We’re going off traveling to far distant lands

Taking this show on the road

That leads where the stone pillar stands

Dick Russell © Richard M Russell

                       2026