Places of Poetry: STONE CIRCLE by Will Harris
Places of Poetry is a project which aims to use creative writing to prompt reflection about national and cultural identities by inviting contributions to the website placesofpoetry.org.uk, until 4 October. The project is open to all writers. This summer Places of Poetry will hold events across England and Wales, each site hosting a poet-in-residence and each poet contributing a poem from their residency to The Clearing. STONE CIRCLE by Will Harris was inspired by Stonehenge and by Avebury; this is an extract from a longer sequence.
Nearly the middle of June the middle of
the year when light at half-past two
makes the stones though they
can’t talk seem to you know
especially when you see the mist
roll in from the hills opposite says
Tim you step over the ropes to
where the bluestone altar maybe
would have been and time doesn’t stop
but there’s a moment once you
feel it it doesn’t go when time is
fluid vocable very slow the
middle of June the middle of
the year and you stand there
in the stones thinking or saying
to yourself you’re not here
but I’ll be seeing you soon
At the part of the fence closest to the stones
a family was taking selfies
the dad pretending to hold up a lintel
they were Indonesian
disini said one here pointing where
the daughter should stand
the grandma wore a pink blouse and sunglasses
to guard against the grey day
Sue described the various reasons people had
for coming here like the woman who
worked in central London and came
here every year to see the sky
horizon to horizon everyone has their
reason each as valid
Sue pointed out the North Atlantic lichen
which was one reason we
couldn’t get nearer to the monument
we weren’t that far from Southampton
it would have blown inland and
because of the stones’ exposed
location on a flat plain latched onto them
growing tufty Sue’s word over time
but it was sensitive you could see a patch
that had been scraped off over
a hundred years ago and not grown back
poets liken things to other things which
can lessen them because a thing likened
is less singular and though I think
of you as singular comparison is useful
you’re the semblance of things I like
yourself but pure likeness
your hair smells like clean air and
the mole on your right shoulder
makes me feel weightless and spore-like
as Andrew took photographs of me and Sue
I wondered if I could believe
in anything not arbitrary I looked
from one side of the horizon
to the other then at those tufts of green
lichen on grey stone green grass
running down to the grey A303 where lorries
groaned under the weight of what
they carried the air was full and weightless
it was June you weren’t here
but I would see you soon
Will Harris is a London-based poet and critic and the author of the essay Mixed-Race Superman, published by Peninsula Press in the UK. He was a recipient of a Poetry Fellowship from the Arts Foundation in 2019 and his first full poetry collection, RENDANG, will be published by Granta in 2020.
The illustration is by Benjamin Bowen of Union Studio.
Poetry of Places is led by the poet Paul Farley and the academic Andrew McRae. It is based at the universities of Exeter and Lancaster, and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England. It is underpinned by national partnerships with the Ordnance Survey, The Poetry Society, and National Poetry Day.