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Poets and artists

The Author of the Pocket Compendium to Wren’s Nest

…said he read the rocks
like he would read a book.

I looked and saw blank walls.
What language is the rock-book
written in ? I asked.

He pointed to a quarry face:
that’s Ancient Limestone, older than the alphabet.
To get the gist of this – he waved his hand –
you need to know what ‘yellow’ means,
and this – he pointed to the fossil trench –
is best read with your fingertips, like Braille.

What’s the rock-book about?
I asked.

A whole library compressed in one small space.
Everything that came here left their mark:
sea-water; trilobites; ice; the south west wind;
men who thought the world was made in seven days;
those who knew it wasn’t ; gentlemen in stove-pipe hats;
quarrymen with picks and axes; thieves; pipistrelles;
and now, he said, there’s this…
And in his hand I saw Enchanter’s Nightshade.