Within and Without by Harriet Fraser

Following our Wild Words event in Keswick, somewhere-nowhere's Harriet Fraser put together the words left by those who came on what makes them think of wildness and the Lake District.

Within and without

words could gather and fall

like raindrops - millions of them

or pass like brief summer gusts

yet only hint at what we call wild

 

beyond walls

in wind and rain

among rugged crags

in the rising and dying of storms

 

have you felt it? unfettered heart 

thrilled with the rawness, the freedom of life

and the joy of small things :

the perfect form of moths

a tender hawthorn bud

 

it can be to step out, collar up, hood down,

and as clouds part, to be stunned

into silence :

a mountain revealed

in full sun

 

it may shine as stars in an autumn night

or shift as liquid silk on a naked swim

it is in the woods, in the songs of dawn

it is feathered writing, birds in a pale sky,

the opening leaves of spring

 

we may look beyond edges

as if it can only dwell out of reach

 

but here it is, at our feet

and in our hearts, the wild thread

that runs through the world

if only we will let it

Featured image: Rob Fraser/somewhere nowhere