The Edinburgh Geologist
Issue no 34

Poet's Corner

Two poems

by Colin Will



The following couple of previously unpublished poems have been contributed by Colin Will.
  

Kimmeridge

Rocklets patter down the crumbling cliff-face;
at its foot a platform;
a grey floor with curves
that might be fossils.

They probably are, these phosphatic fragments
of emptied bone, pale edges
shadows where ball once met socket
in a reptilian joint.

Cliffs are mirrored by the sea.
Across the watered distance from Dorset to France,
between Arromanches and Lyme Regis,
across the languages, cultures,
these shores are joined by Jurassic time

Kimmeridge, Dorset, 2nd August 1998


Rift

We stood, on the true edge of America,
looked across the sundered ground
at Europe's distant scarp.

In between, light snow flurries
came and went, hazing the short walk
between the continents.

Thingvellir, Iceland, 11th April 1999



 


Colin Will is a member of the Society, and until 1988 was the Librarian at the British Geological Survey. He now works for the Royal Botanic Garden. Colin has had a collection of poetry (Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Highlands, and More) published by Diehard in 1996. His second (Seven Senses) is to be published soon.


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