at Dhruvaloka

The second sister, travelling to Finland in search of love

bought for our dad a little bear

trademarked ‘Arabia’.   I wonder who

curates today that memory of him?

In the constellations of kinship, Ursa Minor

circumnavigates Dhruvaloka, nose to the North Star.

Oh Great and Little Bears rotate!

I too have followed The Plough; seen

the worm turn; heard the seagull’s laughter.

‘A man outstanding in his field’ has been

my solitary companion and yet – engaging – smiles;

treading with sturdy feet beside, ahead of me;

turning to wait.   Quickbeam – slowing into elm,

reviving at the roots – connects me

with the circularity of things.

Fieldfarer, seeking a more spacious sisterhood

I followed my heart’s Hare to the moor,

looked out over to where – on ancient rocks –

the gate stands fenceless.

And here I’ll stay, keeper of the Green Chapel,

close to the tides that draw me, gazing on up

to the Wolf hills where my bones

return to the earth.

© Kathy McVittie     12 July 2018

* Dhruvaloka   (Sanskrit)   

ध्रुव लोक

is ‘Place of the North Star’, and has become the informal name for my little writing retreat and summer sanctuary – a place of peace and possibility – in Sutherland, northern Scotland.