THE LIVING LAND

Shaping and shifting itself;

continental shelves sink and rise

so coasts submerge, emerge,

watersheds silt up,

sea-floors scrunch and crack.

whilst alsorts of creatures,

finned, footed and feathered

survive, thrive, evolve…

The hominid is a stone mason - a tool-maker,

 with handy opposing thumbs an’ minds:

incipient engineer, physicist, geomancer, star-gazer,

in alliance with the earth and elements -

with its fey, hinterland beings

familiar with induction, gravity

and thermodynamics.

Igneous rock - graphic granite

• basalt, obsidian, pumice -

 carries piezo-quartz, feldspar, mica,

 rhyolite and magnetite from the running lava

and melting upper crust.

Who shaped and transported

 those enigmatic tekhenu blocks

since time immemorial?

Islands and coastal plains filled with menhirs, dolmens,

 sarson stones and obelisks.

Marking solstices and equinoxes; 

leaving no bones or trace -

but silent avenues or circles

of stupendous megaliths,

often at signal 19.5° angles:

forests of boulders, mounds

telluricly aligned leys -

as if they weighed a feather.

Magical indeed.

Legends about Lyonesse and 

Iberian Vilerinoho da Furna;

tales of Rattray - Aberdeen,

 Cen y fig - Glamorgan,

Acededo - Galicia, 

Ville d’Ys - Brittany, 

 Ravenser Odd, Taff Fechan…local and legion:

an European microcosm

of worldwide phenomena

to sober the material-mind!

And inspire.

The hominid was not so primitive after all!

Quite ingenious, in fact,

what with awls and sicles

hourglasses, sundials, waterclocks, A-frames, calipers, odometer,

sextants, astrolabes

and a lot of arcane know-how,

as good as any proton collider

re solar calculations, direction and dark or anti-matter.