Saturday 2 April 2016

Raised Bog




We love the smell of turf and associate it with cultural tradition
But whether and  where to cut peat remains a much debated subject.
For the facts behind Raised and Blanket Bogs see link below.


Raised Bog

My centre is not bottomless as you supposed.
And soon I will no longer surprise you
with my treasure trove, my black butter,
my bog men, my great Irish elk-
Your history and mine.


You will make walkways across what is left of me
as your Iron Age ancestors did
and teens tuned to i-pods will lark along my edges
once ten millennia deep, thick in iron rich ochre,
fished, reed choked, tree planted and engulfed.

I once rose high above my blanket bog neighbour
I was a bog- mossed dome then.
Now your mechanical diggers cleave 
and slice into hardpan and waterlog
to reach bedrock- that is mine.

Copyright with Cathy Leonard 2016



2 comments:

  1. Cathy, can I use an extract from this for my fake journal? With full credit of course. Thanks. MH

    ReplyDelete
  2. Sure. I just changed the pic. Remembered that I had a few photos taken up behind Caherdaniel when we walked a bog road up there 3 years ago.

    ReplyDelete