An annual collaboration of Tower poets
and local Carnegie Gallery artists for Arts Dundas

Poetry and art copyright © the author and the artist, respectively

Artwalk POETRY and ART



From Dunkery Beacon to the Sea, by Lynn Macintyre*

Up

by Leslie Casey

The sheep have spotted you. From Dunkery Gate,
your camera tethered around your neck, jacket knotted
low on your hips, its hollow sleeves
flail like wind-whipped branches as you climb.

Easy at first and lush
the moors in purple heather, primrose
yellow buttercup give way to a deeper light,
the crease and cleft
that winds through rock, the steepness of hills,
bears you up then up again
until your breath sings and sweat
weaves a slow trickle down your back.
The sheep lift up their heads.
Do not be afraid, they are accustomed to humans
crowds that clamor, voices
rising and falling
a waspish wind through the silence.

Air huge with light gathers you in.
Scent and seed, the vaporish
voices of ghosts. You think you are dreaming
cannot imagine finding yourself this close.
Whether you walked or were carried?

Falling into the horizon. A need
you never knew you had, the earth
spills jade and lime, forest and mist
to the sea. In slate-cast clouds
fields stitched a jigsaw of light and shadow
your spirit loses itself. A sheep casts its eye.
What is, what is absent
waiting to rise, to sound.
To begin beating.



Artwalk III, #3
 

*Visit the web site of artist Lynn Macintyre

Visit the Carnegie Gallery web site: www.carnegiegallery.org


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