Lindisfarne & Iona

The Holy Isles

 

Lindisfarne

Those whose faces are turned always to the sun’s rising
See the living light on its path approaching
As over the glittering sea where in tide’s rising and falling
The sea- beasts bask, on the Isles of Farne
Aidan and Cuthbert saw God’s feet walking
Each day towards all who on world’s shores await his coming
That we too, hand in hand, have received the unending morning.

 

  

Iona

Where, west of the sun, our loved remembered home?
Columba’s Eire from Iona’s strand
Land- under- wave beyond last dwelling speck
That drops from sight the parting ship
As mourners watch wave after wave break.
Sight follows on its golden wake
A dream returning to its timeless source, the heart
Where all remains that we have loved and known.

Kathleen Raine

By South Utsire