Lichen
liken it to liquor
fire across a headstone
blinking coarsely a shore of sand
or an arrow licking the flesh
Consider its flight its sure progression
over towns and fields its spread
along the river’s bend
pinning land in place
Let’s say it is provost of the cemetery’s dead
all those sleeping souls
a crust read from a high point
a sacred scroll one hundred thousand
miles in length unravelling
This poem won the National Poetry Library’s 70-Poet Challenge in 2024 and was performed live by the poet in the Purcell Room, as part of the London literature Festival, on 26th October 2024.
Sharon Black is from Glasgow and lives in a remote valley of the Cévennes mountains in France. She won The London Magazine Poetry Prizes 2019 and 2018. She has published four full collections of poetry and a pamphlet. Her latest collections are The Last Woman Born on the Island (Vagabond Voices, 2022), exploring Scotland’s culture and heritage, and The Red House (Drunk Muse, 2022), set in her adopted homeland. She is editor of Pindrop Press.
