Healing Ground

First time I took Izzy to my favorite place - Gordale Scar - 2018

So Ive just gone though some of the things I used to write and I came across an old WordPress that I used to use, it was mostly the angsty jottings of a man who was, at the time, finding who he was supposed to be, but on it I found something I love, something relevant to who I am now and my current writing.

I know it makes me sound like some sort of Snuffkin-style character, but every Thursday back in 2018, I used to do a round trip in the morning. I used to go to Ingleton, followed by driving to Malham Cove and walking up Gordale Scar for my lunch. I would sit and eat a ham, onion and boiled egg sandwich behind a waterfall and write poems in a rather damp council notebook. I never was good at long sprawling poetry, not for lack of trying, but I used to really enjoy writing Haiku.

This is one I wrote on the 13th of June 2018 called “Healing ground”, and I'm happy to say I'm very proud of it.

I walk without shoes
Spring soil damp beneath my feet
Urban life undone

I remember writing it. It went through many phases. I re-wrote it a great number of times to try and get everything I wanted in to those 17 syllables. The first iteration where it started was:

I walk without shoes
The earth and I connected
It heals urban wounds

The first version was closer to how I felt at the time, but I thought if I was going to write a haiku, it should have a kigo and a kireji. Anything worth doing, is worth doing slowly after all. And so, this little haiku took a lot of time, and a lot ham, onion and boiled egg sandwiches. Always on brown bread. Aways from the same bakery in Ingleton. Always in red and white checkered paper. Always sat under the same waterfall.

One last time for my own enjoyment of writing it out:

I walk without shoes
Spring soil damp beneath my feet
Urban life undone

The view from where I used to sit for my lunch.

The climb up to my waterfall.

Above Gordale Scar, looking for something I never did find.

The view down the valley from the top of the sheerface of Gordale Scar.