shady side of the moon

A dream on wheels

time & tires,

& the murky indigo canopy worn through

by glinting rainslick pavement--

these things get thinner as the night goes on

& the road grows long, &

I once heard (or thought i heard

some late night half sleeping & all dreaming)

that in places the horizon tears in two,

like a great maw, to make the world a feast, &

Late at night the asphalt sings to me

of silver sliver moons on haunted lanes

where ghouls bemoan for want of company, &

i hear the driver say, "If you close your eyes now,

"I'm afraid you'll wake in a very different country," &

wheels & wind winding round rolling roads roar o'er all ere nightfall, &

i don't know where this road began, or if it ends, anymore . . .

We stopped at another bunch of rocks in a field on our way back the other day. Another stone circle, older than Stonehenge but much smaller. It was interesting.

The next day (that is, today) we got up and went hiking across the mountains all morning. That is, only four of us did. It was a fairly short, relatively easy hike (with a bit of very fun climbing) to the top of the mountain, and the surrounding landscape was extremely pretty. It rained pretty much the whole time, but it was a misty, drizzling rain and we barely noticed it. We also got a bit lost and went in a big circle once on the way back.

After lunch we went on a bit of a roadtrip to visit Ruskin's house, which was extremely interesting and full of cool stuff. I bought a lil sketchbook and some pencil crayons, not sure if I'll actually end up drawing anything. Also had tea and sort of polished the above poem, which I started in the pub the other night. Which I suppose I didn't talk about. It was a very nice evening, the poet-in-residence was a young lady named Helen Mort (a very poetic name, I think) and the poems were very pub-centric with a few interesting ghost stories.

After supper we went back to the Jerwick center to look at some landscape paintings, which is in fact where I am now.

We saw the landscapes, which were quite interesting, then ended the day by going back into Dove Cottage and reading some Wordsworth, a very nice end. We're leaving the lakes district early tomorrow, which will be our last long driving day of the trip.