Thursday 15 January 2009

remote

in this wild land of sea lochans
every seal becomes a selkie
every horse becomes a kelpie
and the wail of the wind
a banshee cry.

Dialect for Read Write Poem

follow the coloured links to find out more!

a lochan is a small
loch
a selkie is a name for a seal but (to me at least!) is more familiar as the name of the mythical seal folk
the kelpie is a supernatural water horse
the banshee is a wailing female spirit
You can read my earlier poem about selkies here

18 comments:

Andy Sewina said...

Now you're talking!

anthonynorth said...

There is much of the Celtic in this. I actually knew all the words without explanation! :-)

claireylove said...

Simple, elegant, to the point and beautiful!

Gordon Mason said...

That's the heilands - scary!

Ana said...

I enjoyed it - a mythical place.
and I learned some new words I like :banshee, kelpie, selkie...

Tommaso Gervasutti said...

Dear Juliet, several years ago I wrote this short kind of joke of a poem which can be a sea-lagoon answer to yours:

YEAT’S SONG

A row of gulls on the rail in the cold,
by the waves.
How good they are, much better than us,
at waiting for anything that may pass
with, at their bills, Yeat’s song:
“Fish, flesh, or fowl”.

Best wishes, Davide

polona said...

sounds like a land i would love to see some day...

Tumblewords: said...

This piece rings with legend and nature. Very nice!!

get zapped said...

Very interesting play with words and forms.

Anonymous said...

I wish I could go there, hear that banshee crying.

The myth of the Selkie is one of my favorites...

EDOWAY YUNUS BLOK NEWS OF WEST PAPUA said...

papua say hiiiiiiiii

shadows and clouds said...

this is really captivating. and after my visit to the hebrides last summer i can feel it all that bit better too. lots of atmosphere and most lovely! have a good weekend

Anonymous said...

Great words. :-) Celtic culture lends itself perfectly to poetry.

Anonymous said...

very simple and pure, informative yet beautiful

generous of you to provide the links!

C. Elizabeth said...

I absolutely adored this. The use of mythology was so nice and I learned something new today too.

Anonymous said...

how wonderfully magical... the word sounds are so lyrical and great fun to read aloud. ;)

Anonymous said...

Beautiful! I love the references to your local mythology. The sound of the wind as a banchee cry at the end is a haunting way to seal the poem. (I did mean to make a pun!)

Laura Jayne said...

A beautiful use of mythology. The imagery is gorgeous.