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.