Iona
‘A place of hope’, they say:
and in their thousands
they journey, year by year,
to this tiny island
on the margins of Europe.
Sunswept and windswept,
yet always deeply
a place of transformation.
A sacred sport on earth:
a pilgrim’s place
af light and shadow,

Have we forgotten the wonder of each day
and the magic of each other, as we say
‘the war on terror’ – in a world of fears.

Afraid of the stranger but perhaps more fearful of ourselves in a world of shadows.

We long to laugh again, to dream a dream
to dance in the sun – in a world of light.

And One still calls gently in the storm;
for in our midst there is another way,
resonant with life
and tested through the years.
Peter Millar