Prevent – a poem by Lydia Harris

Prevent: archaic (of God) act in anticipation of

through all the farm of Hammers prevent me:
	with rain to brim my well
	with a quartz pebble to cool my palm

	with flames to dance my stove
	with whole flesh to my body

	with firm flanks to the cattle
	with pockets of seed to scatter

	with honeycomb in the wall
	with six dots and a crooked line

	with grass swaying the field forenoon and night
	with the sound of your feet as you walk ahead

wear a track up Fitty Hill
	for to obtein primrose
	for to obtein knots of heather
	for to obtein the whole sky, the whole sea

Lydia Harris has made her home in the Orkney island of Westray. Her second full collection Henrietta’s Library of the Whole Wide World was published by Blue Diode in March.