Mark Goodwin
Llyn in the Moelwyns
Heather is beaded
with condensed mist.
‘Not a puff of wind.’
Sunshine slides
through the mist - sprays
light.
As we wade
in heather our knees’re soaked
cool. Our expressions fixed
we aim
for certainty: We read
ground through
fine detail printed
on paper; we count
our paces along
compass bearings from
this knoll to that
contour re-entrant; now
to the stream heard
trickling before it’s
seen. The stream’s
handrail will lead
to the llyn’s bowl balanced
above us.
Dark juniper bushes push
through the mist’s
brightness as we gain
height.
Our voices
are close; completely
echoless - muffled
as If indoors.
Were between
four walls of mist.
Our gaitered boots, sucked
by soaked mosses, release
with each step whiffs
of bog plants and peat. Suddenly
the mist lifts.
The llyn’s still sheet is revealed.
Cnicht’s crisp ridge
is perfectly reflected. Distance
open air, flashes
of blue sky.
greens vibrant
in broad light.
The llyn’s banks
are short, steep crags flecked
with quartz - they form
a cove. The rock’s roughness
and the llyn’s sheen
abrade and soothe
as we scramble
round the rim.
Mist tumbles
up from the valley over
the lip
of the llyn’s bowl; rolls
across its glaze towards
us. We freeze. Stare. Air
skims
our faces with its cool vapour.
Page(s) 71
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The