Guest Poem by Roger Harvey

Roger Harvey was born in 1953 and lives in Newcastle. In addition to his activities as a poet he is a novelist, playwright and scriptwriter. A large retrospective poetry collection ‘How Happy were the Mornings’ was published in 2023. This poem is from Acumen 107.

Questions on a Hill

 I climbed Cat Bells
on the first day of winter:
mist above and below me,
sleet in the air.

The view of lakes and islands,
green and brown and silver-grey,
was wonderful.
No-one could tell it true.

I want you to wonder
why it is that men climb high
to feel like gods.
Are we star-children
reaching pitifully home,
or merely runners from our cares below?

Far away,
in sullen towns I could not see,
men were living who had done these things:
felt the thrusting mountains at their feet,
the cold wind on their eyes.
How many kept their memories fresh?
How many heard the wind?