The granites and schists of my dark and stubborn country form the bedrock of woe that has lasted a lifetime, just waiting to poke through the drift that was built up in more active days. The strata built of depositing a family, laying down a career, the metamorphosis from one relationship to another and the occasional intrusion or outflow of molten anger or passion, built a land that seemed impregnable. But tears are relentless and oceans rise and fall, cutting into the margins and then came the ice age of retirement, the weight of ice depressing the whole and stripping all away except that bedrock and leaving even that, scarred and scratched, rounded into the low hills of the bed where I lay and even the black dog has no energy to venture out on the soggy moors that cover the degraded granite hills.
© Andrew Wilson, 2025
“The granites and schists
Of my dark and stubborn country.”
–Nan Shepherd, “The Hill Burns”
from In the Cairngorms (Edinburgh: The Moray Press, 1934)
Over at dVerse Poets Pub, merrildsmith in Prosery, invites us to write a piece of prose poetry in no more than 144 words and using the given quote above. I should say that the subject of this piece is not my experience but that of someone close to me. As a student of Geology (and Geography) I am aware that Scotland, which is where you find the Cairngorms, has had a remarkable persistence through many geological ages and each age has added layers which may subsequently been removed in another geological age – I am not sure whether this does not give an ultimately optimistic view of things even if it requires a timescale in which we humans may turn out to be but a flash in the pan. Anyway, a metaphor suggested itself with this prompt… I hope it does not bring anyone down…
A powerful metaphorical reflection, Andrew–and, I’m glad to read that it is not about you. I’m sorry for the person close to you though. It sounds like they are truly in pain.
I like what you said in your comment:
“I am not sure whether this does not give an ultimately optimistic view of things even if it requires a timescale in which we humans may turn out to be but a flash in the pan.”
We really are just blinks in Earth and even more so, the universe’s eye.
Thanks Merril 💜
Andrew, I like how you used the line as a metaphor for a family and how it morphs over time. I also appreciate the geology lesson 🙂
Thanks Li, I think it is an appropriate metaphor…
Wow— and you think I write dark… I think you need a place in the south to lift that mood… love the extended metaphor of the text
I am not so affected by the dark but they definitely are which is why Crete in 2020 was great…
You didn’t bring me down, Andrew .. flashes in the pan, yes we are. The brighter the flash, the better .. burning with intensity, enough to snuff the darkness, doom, the desperation.
Its hard for those in a depressed state to achieve that philosophical equilibrium though – thanks for commenting, Helen 💜
So many touch points that are evocative of direct or indirect experiences I know well, I love how you’ve taken the prompt and personified it through those experiences.
Thanks Paul, its a very hard condition…