Rackwick Bay

Last night's performance has me thinking on poetry and Hoy, in particular the magnificent Rackwick Bay which we visited (and swam in!) last year ...

... so here's an early George Mackay Brown verse, written in the 1950's, and as taken from the pictured 2017 reprint of what was his very first published collection of poems:


Rackwick
(for Ian MacInnes)

Let no voice idly whisper here. 
Between those strong red cliffs, 
under that great mild sky 
lies Orkney’s last enchantment,  
the hidden valley of light.
Sweetness from the clouds pouring,
songs from the surging sea. 
Fenceless fields, fishermen with ploughs
and old heroes, endlessly sleeping
in Rackwick’s compassionate hills.

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George Mackay Brown (1921 – 1996) 

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