Sunday, April 29, 2007

RKO landscape

Idle, city cynic that I am; here, I am constantly taken by a shake your head and pinch yourself surprise. I catch my breath sometimes, out and about, and think: “Beauty. Simply. Beauty.” Beauty will not be ignored despite my best and busiest endeavour and I never said, could never say, this was not a beautiful land.

There are days. There are places. Which are as if they have been painted by a master. You want to reach out to touch the bulked white cloud to see if it is still oil wet. You think that mellow green, grainy sand, ironed grey of the sea; how do these colours know the exact shade of a masterpiece? They do. Each time different. You breathe in. You expect the smell of garret and wiped cotton rags; not spring iced air. I drove across a moor, the Cheviot hills in the distance; the heather, brown, burgundy tinted; the whole, tufted with straw grass. You would think a hand had moulded the land, its curves caught with all the perfection of a sleeping Eve. I slowed the car. Then stopped.

An iron TV transmitter stood splayed in the emptiness. I am sure, I have seen a giant monkey climb it and roar out his black and white frustration. I watched the skies. I started to look across the perfect moor to catch a glimpse of angry ape. No bi-planes. No ape. My only companion, a white bottomed deer which turned to look at me. Listened to my Amy Winehouse. Liked her. Listened a while longer to her urban beat. Then. Casual. Leapt a fence to disappear back into the painted forest.

8 comments:

The Draughtsman said...

Well you DO know that we Northumbrians, exiled or otherwise, call it "God's Own Country".
Whey aye bonnie lass, naturally.

@themill said...

The giant monkey's black and white frustration or yours?
Tis God's own country, indeed.

Unknown said...

I often stand alone on one of the cliffs near here and get the sensation I'm going to see a wooly mammoth or something walking on the beach.

Like I'm looking into an older world.

Anonymous said...

A Hand did mould the land. No human could have conceived what you describe!

Cathy said...

It sounds as if the beauty is finally killing the beast for you.

That deer has great taste in music!Perhaps the two worlds are not as far apart as you thought.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm.. When I said 'check out the Laurie Lee view of country 'I didn't intend for you to actually EAT all his books...

Anonymous said...

This is the perfect place to put the following quote that I have on the bottom of all my correspondence.....


Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the
moments that take our breath away.

Mutterings and Meanderings said...

The King Kong you visualised has migrated from Chatton mast to a house beside the graveyard...