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Writer Mel Melvin shares a piece from Doon Mackichan's Loch Rannoch writing and wild swimming retreat
UNWRITTEN
Blacken the pages
Take down the books from the shelves
Remove the pen from every scribe
Stand by the gravestone and utter not a word
I can’t write without you
I learnt to form my letters on your knee
I herded ink into squares
Only to delight you,
To lie down in the ‘C’ of your thin-lipped smile
I can’t write without you
At primary school I wrote a pearly sentence to hang around your neck and learnt how to disappear
into a book.
As a teenager, you drew out novels for me from your high shelves
Like an apothecary dispensing a vial of medicine
Heyer, Trollope, Mitford, Shreve
You could spot the past imperfect subjunctive from a mile off,
you taught me how to place an adjective and turn a phrase
You were my grammar,
My exclamation mark,
My full stop.
Finally I wrote my first novel and you kept it beside you during your final chapter,
At the hospice I read you Keats and left gaps for you to mouth the words – Alien corn.
I can’t write without you.
So let’s stand at the graveside,
may the inscription I ordered be my final words:
CICELY KNOWLES
1940-2023
BELOVED MATRIARCH
To join Mel’s Brighton Yoga retreat on Saturday December 7th click here.
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