Bartholomew from Ohio is visiting Orkney, and posted the following on his blog
I had to break my pen to unlock a hole in the ground older than Lazarus. Crouched, fingers grazing wet stone as I made my way to panic. Quick withdrawal — back to where I could stand upright and breathe. I’ve come this far (and it has been a very long journey) to turn back would be a regret deeper than poetry. Try again and, as with most things, the center was closer than I feared and it was quiet and dark and soothing.
I’ve been in Orkney
crawled through claustrophobia
as if from a womb
I’ve been thinking about this, and what he’s written – his haibun – very much catches the tendency in the Iron Age to go into the earth. In Britain, the folk of the Neolithic tended to look to the sky and the stars – folk of the Iron Age went into the earth. He captures that. He also captures that feeling of enclosure and restriction which might have been used to alter consciousness in ‘rites of passage’ ceremonies.
He’s travelled a long way, to open the doors to an intriguing mystery….
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