The Journey Inwards – a poem by Viv Longley

The Journey Inwards

The sculptor’s rock looms in the white studio light.

She knows what to do.
The form has long been in her
echoing her need to express.

The stone’s heart is resistant,
resentful maybe.

It yearns for its ancient place,
thrown up in the seethe that formed the planet,
cooled and split by the seismic rolling of the oceans.
Then frozen to its core.

It has no fear.
Integrated, complete:
it views the puny soul that knows so little,
as she readies on a ladder with hammer and chisel to scribble on its surface.

The granite boulder squats,
menacing,
very much alert.

Alive
and waiting.


Viv Longley has been writing for her own pleasure since she was a child. Later in life she undertook an MA in Creative Writing at The Open University, specialising in poetry. As well as having one collection (Tally Sheet, Currock Press, 2021) she is undertaking a number of collaborative publications, notably, Daughters of Thyme. She is also preparing a second collection of her own and a number of essays – the latter to be called I am in a Hurry. ‘Now nearing my 80’s, you just never know how much time you have left!’