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  • Iona
  • Kenneth Steven (bio)

Leave Craignure and the woods around Duart Castleand hug the shore before you climb the lion-coloured hills:Glen Gorm, from which the people once were burned.Up higher and still higher, until the lochs lie far belowin clear, long stretches. Then begin the descentand if you're lucky the whole bald head of Ben Morehas broken out of cloud and stares west, a weathered sphinx.A telephone box, a single house, and miles of salt marshfor the constant hope of otters. Then on, to Pennyghael,and the thin single road that winds like a piece of threadover to the cliffs of Carsaig. But keep on heading west,until Bunessan and the harbour and the clustered houses.You're almost there. An inland loch, impossibly blue,and now the breeze blows every way at once–the land lies low, left with a few wind-twisted trees,and see, ahead, there, on the edge of the sky;the abbey nestled by the sea–guarding, keeping, waiting. [End Page 264]

Kenneth Steven

Kenneth Steven is a poet, novelist and children's author from Scotland. He is most inspired by the Celtic Christian story, and from childhood days the island of Iona has been his spiritual home. Kenneth leads many retreats both as a writer and as a follower of that Celtic path. His most recent poetry collections are Letting in the Light (SPCK) and Deirdre of the Sorrows (Birlinn). www.kennethsteven.co.uk.

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