The Art of Listening
Hunt out wild flowers,
reach out, not to pick them
but as an offer of intimacy.
Stay open-hearted,
don’t put your ear
to the ground to listen
for sap or soil, instead
tune into the words
written between the lines –
visible in the way bluebell,
pink campion, stitchwort
offer up their secrets,
have made themselves
vulnerable against
pale and dark greens.
This is an offering –
last chance to hear
this moment’s prayer.
About this poem
This poem was included in Best Scottish Poems 2019. Best Scottish Poems is an online publication, consisting of 20 poems chosen by a different editor each year, with comments by the editor and poets. It provides a personal overview of a year of Scottish poetry. The editor in 2019 was Roseanne Watt.
Editor’s note:
I love the gentle spell at work in this poem. In a loud and hurried world, ‘The Art of Listening’ brings an urgent, near-sacred moment of stillness. Here is an opportunity to attune to the harmonics of what is at play ‘between the lines’, and the vulnerability required to occupy such a space. This poem comes as a much-needed balm during these extraordinary times – where even in this moment of mandatory solitude, it can still be hard to hear above the roar of the world’s anxieties.
Author’s note:
This poem was prompted by a growing intimacy with my immediate surroundings, particularly the flowers, as I walked the same path every day on Iona. It’s a reminder to myself to look closely, and tries to capture something about the way life is a moment to moment process – something it’s easy for me to forget.
