NaPoWriMo #25: Listen Up

Although the prompt at readwritepoem was to listen up, and write a poem about sounds, I started with an image. A few months ago I put a collection of photos from our UK trip into a folder to use as my desktop images. They change every 30 minutes and by having them in front of me so often, they are engraving themselves on my mind far more than when I just had some printed and stored in an album.

One of them was my prompt for yesterday's poem, and another sparked the idea for today's. This is Inchamahome Priory on an island on the Lake of Menteith in Scotland. The young Mary Queen of Scots was taken here for a few weeks as a four year old, for her safety. It is now largely in ruins, and is a very peaceful, beautiful place.



I think this poem needs quite a lot more work, but I do like the basic structure I used which was to alternate the sounds that might have been heard when the young queen was there, with the sounds that we heard when we visited.

The reference to the fair folk comes from here.

Inchamahome

The child queen chases a butterfly
her laughter rings out
safe here on the island
from the Rough Wooing

a bird in the forest
the slow drip of water through stone

The voices of the canons at prayer
in nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti
hush, says the child queen’s mother
remember your duty

the chatter of day trippers
and the clicking of cameras

The child queen looks for the fair folk
and their rope of sand
sees only the rope that fastens the boat
that brought her here

soft chug of a motor
a boat appears to take us home