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  • At Cairnholy
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At Cairnholy

Tom Pow

Chambered cairn: third millennia B.C.

The Cairnholy sun
dyed the cold sky red,
dispensed with forests;
made sea echo stone.
For, in winter, Wigtown
deals elements; lead
us, like lapsed priests,
to its burial homes.

On a court of dead grass,
before a façade
of chiselled pillars,
we lit two sparklers
against the black mass
of night. As darkness bled
around our shelter,
we made a mark there

with a brief ritual
of laughter and light.
Two innocent fires
circle each other.
They spark off nuptuals –
like moths, each one light
to the other – till tired
dancing, they wither.

The ceremony
burns still; a small fire in my distant heart.
Though bones stand on bones,
our truest story
is told by frail wires
of ash, the colour
of Cairnholy stone.


Tom Pow

from The Moth Trap (Canongate, 1990)

Reproduced by permission of the publisher.

Tags:

Dumfries & Galloway Scotland
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Tom Powb.1950

Tom Pow is a poet with a dozen collections to his name, and has also written for children and young adults. Travel and the exploration of peripheral regions feature in his more recent projects and poetry.
More about Tom Pow

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