Walking in the UK: Anglesey, 2018
Sue Leigh Poetry
I recall it now in glimpses – a length of blue cloth printed with flowers in Soetsu Yanagi’s folk museum (where objects do not bear their maker’s name, you encounter them just as they are) – the green-gold of unharvested rice, the sound of the wind in it – a Buddhist monk in white robes who walks the mountains in rice straw sandals – a torii gate – small stone bodhisattvas by a mountain path – a golden pavilion – stooks of rice straw, an abstract in a field – a world of illusion, kabuki, sensuality and ritual – food, a still life in small coloured dishes – a temple garden, reflections in water – light through a paper screen, shadows.
Walking in Japan, 2015
Saint Cybi’s fourteenth century church in the walls of a Roman fort, warm enough to sit for a while – climbed Holy Mountain – guillemots and puffins at South Stack – hut circles – sea thrift – St Gwenfaen’s well of clear water – Rhoscolyn’s beautiful beach – saw a green lizard beside the path – a man cockling in a tidal creek – a Neolithic burial chamber, spirals on the stones – Saint Cwyfan’s island church at Aberffraw (looked for cowries while waiting for the tide) – sandpipers on the beach – walked through Bordogan Eastate with a woman and her dog, Shadow – Northern marsh orchids – Charles Tunnicliffe’s estuary of birds (his measured drawings in the gallery, Oriel Ynys MÔn) – pine forests, sand dunes – marram grass (once used for ropes, baskets, mats) – ancient stepping stones over the Afon Braint – burial chamber at Bryn Celli Ddu, a boy playing a pipe – ahead, all of Snowdonia.