Stanza Stone I - Beck Stone

One my favourite Ilkley annual events is the Literature Festival which usually enriches the town in October.

Last year was launched a project involving amongst others Simon Armitage (poet and national treasure), Pip Hall (letter carver) and her apprentice Wayne Hart. The project somehow involved them all and 2012 Olympics (the imagination and drive of whoever brought those things together is to be admired!) and has produced 6 poem carved stones across a route of 40+miles from Simons home in Marsden, finishing here in Ilkley with this stone.

Rather odd for me to start at the end, but it's less than a mile from the front door and as there is a water theme, I thought I could blip them to the source over the summer.

The moor has scattered over it many rocks and stones with carvings on, from recent "graffiti", to Victorian art(graffiti) to ancient iron age carvings (asumed to be sacred art). It seems fitting then to leave words and images and thoughts marked on the stones.

This is the Beck Stone then, which is in a beck suprisingly, the sculpture had to stand in the beck to carve the rock. I love the way the curve in the lines gives a sense of the place, hills, river and motion. I loved this on my first visit today, I know I'll stop by on walks and runs and eventually know the verse by heart. For blip today- my first encounter.