Skip to content

Scottish Poetry Library

Register/Sign in
Shopping Bag Shopping Bag
Bringing people and poems together
  • Home
  • COVID-19
    • Re-Opening FAQ
  • Poetry
    • Poems
    • Poets
    • Our National Poet
    • Podcasts
    • Best Scottish Poems
    • Poetry and Mindfulness
    • Champions 2020
    • Posters
    • Publishers
  • Library
    • Become a borrower
    • Catalogue
    • Collections
    • Ask a librarian
    • Copyright enquiries
  • Learning
    • National Poetry Day 2019
    • National Poetry Day archive
    • SQA set texts
    • Learning resources
    • New to poetry?
    • Advice for poets
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • Exhibitions
    • Venue hire
    • List an event
  • Shop
    • National Poetry Day 2020
    • New Titles
    • Poetry Pamphlet Cards
    • Pocket Poets
    • Scottish Poetry
    • Help
  • About us
    • Our story
    • Our people
    • Our projects
    • Jobs
    • Our building
    • FAQs
    • Find us
  • Support us
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
    • Easy Fundraising
  • Blog
Shopping BagShopping Bag
Ask a librarian
  • Home
  • >
  • Poetry
  • >
  • Veronica Aaronson
  • >
  • The Art of Listening
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

The Art of Listening

Veronica Aaronson

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. 


Veronica Aaronson

From Nothing about the birds is ordinary this morning (Indigo Dreams, 2019)

Reproduced by permission of the author.

Tags:

flowers listening nature wildflowers

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.

Listen

Share this
Facebook
Twitter
Email

Learn more

Best Scottish Poems 2019

edited by Roseanne Watt
Find out more

Veronica Aaronson

Veronica Aaronson is the co-founder and one of the organisers of the Teignmouth Poetry Festival.
More about Veronica Aaronson

Online Shop

Browse our range of poetry books, cards and gifts in our online shop.
Shop now
  • Newsletter signup
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Scottish Poetry Library
5 Crichton's Close, Canongate
Edinburgh EH8 8DT
Tel: +44 (0)131 557 2876
© Scottish Poetry Library 2021.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
City of Edinburgh logo Green Arts Initiative logo Creative Scotland logo
By leaves we live

The Scottish Poetry Library is staffed weekdays from 10am – 2pm and is providing a limited service including postal loans and Click & Collect. For details, click COVID-19 in the menu bar above. Dismiss