Will Burns (Member no: 1869)
The Isles of Scilly (Natural Burial Ground)
I spent a few days on the Scillies and got shown around the passage graves and burial mounds, got the low-down on the flora and fauna, the native, and non-native
I’ve spent the last couple of years thinking about, and on, islands of various sizes. Thinking about how we live on islands, and also how we die on them. A couple of years ago I spent a few days on the Scillies and got shown around the passage graves and burial mounds, got the low-down on the flora and fauna, the native, and non-native (whatever that might mean…), the decorative, the locally-specific. The material, somewhat inevitably, became this poem, which I’m chuffed that artist, musician, fellow-poet and now world famous stone enthusiast Matthew Shaw has made a short film and musical score. I think this poem, and the film in its own, perhaps more oblique way, touch on many of the themes, thoughts, reflections, feelings and whatever else that have accrued over this last couple of years to make up a new book of poems called Natural Burial Ground. For now, though, here’s ‘Off Island’…
