Adam Skerrett, 3 – 10 February 2024
SEA-SPRAY SALTS THE CANVAS OF THE PAGE
I have just returned from the Shining Land,
from an artist’s residence in Cornwall.
I have been writing bardic praise songs to the sea,
and land
– to that sweet and salty place, where the two worlds meet.
I sought the freedom of the far-flung west,
and sat upon the seat-of-storms.
The watch-light beamed,
I saw fire-crows at bird light
as I walked the song-path of the morning;
a golden thread at winter’s end.
I lent as close to the land as I could,
and I wrote what I felt, in my feet,
as I walked
the storied-path of quartz and granite.
Oh, a bard could make his shape-shift here,
this place where stories fit the land.
Unenclosed, unbound,
with freedom to dream, to write, to walk.
The sound of the sea
as she spoke to granite,
and wore away the stubbornness of land.
I followed these threads with rural pen,
it took me into wet white gales,
to Celtic seas of white-tipped longing,
where the wild waters meet,
and merge,
in throes of passion.
My tongue, it tasted white-fleck foam,
always searching for the sweetness.
The Cornish choughs let out red speech,
they feather a nest on Arthur’s Seat.
This is my bird faith.
And there is no holding back its beak.
A thread was woven long ago,
by red-legged chough, by fire-crow;
and the substance of this speech endures.
Nature’s scripture.
To each of us, a word is said.
And slowly, slowly,
words begin to make a sentence.
This is myth and memoir,
and the sea-spray salts
the canvas of the page.
I will be speaking as part of the World Trails Network’s Art and Culture programme in May, delivering a presentation on the Mythwalker project.
Mythwalking with Adam Skerrett
Friday May 24th, 2024 4pm (online) FREE
https://worldtrailsnetwork.org/walking-artists/
This seminar is part of a wider series of talks and presentations, with an eclectic range of artists and practitioners, whose work contributes to conversations on walking, ecology, culture, and story.
I am currently in the process of editing my debut book Mythwalker, with a view to submitting for publication later this year. You can follow the story, and read excerpts from the book via my Instagram account @mythwalker and my website www.mythwalker.co.uk I will also shortly be launching a Substack blog featuring poetry, story-telling, and other mythic content.
I am planning to launch a new series of guided ‘Myth Walk Experiences’ on the North coast of Cornwall later this year, telling the stories of the land, in the places where they happened.
How many people do you estimate will benefit from the activity as a result of your residency? Do you focus on any particular ages or special groups in your creative work?
With around 500 followers on social media at present, I intend to share my work with this established audience,and to attract a growing interest in my work through speaking at events, sharing writing and reels online, and through the guided walk offerings. Once the book is published, I hope that the work will be able to reach a much wider audience. Whilst some activities such as guided walks and live events may not be accessible to all, through print publishing and online content, I hope that there will be a part of the Mythwalker experience available to everyone. After all, who doesn’t love to be told a story!
Brisons Veor is a very special place, who couldn’t be enchanted by the westernmost dwelling in Cornwall! And the view, and the sound, and every sensory experience the open door of that balcony ushers in! It is a wonderful place which truly offered me the freedom I needed; to write, to walk, to be deeply immersed in the imagination of this landscape; the sea-spray salting the canvas of my page. I think I am a little bit in love – but that’s the occupational hazard of being a romantic poet!
Don’t change too much – just keep it standing fast against the white-capped swell of the Celtic Sea! It kept me cosythrough February mizzle. The place is a writer’s dream. Deep gratitude for my time in residence here.