IAN Brown remembers the extraordinary experience of walking on water in the harsh winter of 2009-2010. The poem is included in his far-ranging new collection, Collyshangles in the Canopy (Kennedy and Boyd). I too did that improbable icy walk!
LAKE OF MENTIETH FROZEN, 14 JANUARY 2010
(For Mia)
I think that never again in my life will I walk on water
From the Lake Hotel to the Inchmahome pier.
I might swim it, sail it, row it, be driven in a motor boat,
But walk – hotel to pier – never.
You might have come, wee one, but for
The worry of another the ice would give.
The ice was firm for skating, walking, sliding;
Some melt water pools, crazed cracks, but bearing up.
You walked on the edges, of course – remember that –
And asked if the fish were below.
We said they were – cold and sleepy.
One day, awakened, you too might make that bold, brave walk.
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