COLUMBA'S island is a leitmotif for Kenneth Steven.
In Iona: the Other Island, his perceptive prose and poetry is complemented by the imaginative photography of Iain Sarjeant (Saint Andrew Press, 2014).
LOOKING FORWARD
When I am going to Iona by bus
I like to creep in to a window seat
And watch Mull flickering past.
I am looking forward: I want the journey over
Yet I hold what lies ahead like warm light.
Mull is made of great darkenings,
Sudden flickerings of late October sun;
Red deer battling, the colour of bracken,
Over hillsides that are made of rock.
The burns like tousled collies;
The ben with a shivering of snow.
Then, at last, after an hour and a half,
The island there in the top right corner of the window
And I am five years old once more.
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