By Robert Rendall.

But, John, have you seen the world, said he,
Trains and tramcars and sixty seaters,
Cities in lands across the sea –
Giotto’s tower and the dome of St Peters ?

No, but I’ve seen the arc of the earth,
From the Birsay shore, like the edge of a planet,
And the lifeboat plunge through the Pentland Firth
To a cosmic tide to the men who man it.