The Assynt Poems
The poems linked to this page reflect work completed during 3 successive writing retreats at Glen Canisp Lodge in Assynt, Sutherland.
Glen Canisp Lodge is operated by the Assynt Foundation in trust for the Assynt community as part of a inspirational and revolutionary project of community led development (and recovery) in the North Western corner of Scotland and of Europe.
The land on which the lodge stands, integral to the Atlantic geology of North Eastern Canada and Greenland yet physically contiguous with Europe, exemplifies (for me) the possibilities and resources of the Atlantic Fringe as (to quote Kenneth White) a field of possibility and a space for projects -for Scotland, for Europe and for all of us.
Central to the vision of this space is Suilven - as iconic in form as Fujiyama. Its name is derives from the Gaelic - the Eye-Mount. As a result of the re-acquisition of the land on behalf of community, Suilven is now, uniquely perhaps, a 'community owned' mountain, a critical point of reference for wanderers along this growth edge of consciousness as it has been since Pytheas the Massaliot's progress from established knowledge towards Ultima Thule and the widdershins circulation of Celtic and Scandinavian knowledge south and east. Now perhaps contemporaries, thinking through the realignments and redefinitions in social, ecological and political space at the begining of the 21st century, may find it a useful bearing and landmark.
The three attached pieces, with associated images, are the 'product' of two climbs of Suilven from Glen Canisp and one baulked attempt. I hope these will form an on-going work in progress - words thrust upon me by the experience of landscape in a special and uniquely creative physical and social space.
The shadow of Norman MacCaig, of course, precedes and informs any work expressive or interpretive of this space and all related spaces, as acknowledged, for example, in other elements of my poetry such as That promises to keep gubbins.
John Bolland - November 2007