Day 14

Saturday 27th August 2022

11am – Start at Bridge No. 3

It’s warm and sunny and still

No ripples on the

water

yesterday’s raindrop

ripples gone now

A new and different

present here and now

A busy day of tooing and

froing, cheery

More of us on foot

today, less of us on

bikes, walkers and

talkers, many sitting

still, bramble pickets

children, babies,

saunterers and joggers

And a hen party

paddle boards by

the bride-to-be

in the lead

People there to

witness and follow

for the hour

and many chance

encounters glancing

back, watching from

a bridge above, or

from a metal seat

Some cosy little

things – touching the

stone

immersing in the

willow tree

Watching the sun

on the water

dipping barefeet

into the cool and the

clear

It looks so murky to

the eye, the canal

but is so so clear to

the touch of the

skin

Do we privilege the

visual as our

way of knowing?

What of knowing in

the skin

What does it mean

to know a place

this way

The skin of it

and the skin of me

Surfaces

undersurfaces

textures

temperatures

The softness of

sandstone

and its raggedy

surface

feeling paint on

metal

Plants that brush

the forearm

and the inside of

the wrist

The spine aligned

with a wooden post

and the opening of

the ribcage

Being held by

willow trees

The feeling of the

run

The height of things

The height of things

and the height of

me

Swinging round

a metal pole

A fence that

lets me soar

A tiny rock that

lets me balance

Clothes and skin

marked with the traces

of the journey

water

plant-life

sandstone

graffiti coloured

paint

dust

and spiders webs

my cheek still

feels the moss

Do we have to love

being in the world

in the here and

now – knowing and

engaging with the

world of nature

and material –

the materiality of

things

as a way to

problem solve and

find solutions

watched by a crow

And a person who

found me because

another person

asked them

“are you looking

for the dancer”

I think again of

the valve of the

chance encounter

the unexpected

combinations

and the open-ended

gentle invitation

the be with something

in your own time

and your own way

with porous edges

that allow for choice

the unknown

the spontaneous

literally creating

small shifts and

ripples

bringing life and

spirit and fluidity

into how we are

This human-made

canal for industry

and capital

Then abandoned

disowned

discared

is teeming now

with life

The human and the

more than human

sharing

space and time

and place

unregulated

overlapping

sometimes

open-ended

looking out and

looking in

not brittle, not rigid,

not fixed

NEXT ENCOUNTER: Sunday 28th August 3pm

Tow Path, Bridge of Harrison Park

and the Eastern Edge

Whatson Crescent on one side

Polwarth Place on the other