One Star in the West

To have got so far, alone
Almost to the seventieth stone
Is a wonder.
There was thunder

A few miles back, a storm-shaken
Hill and sea, the bridge broken
[The bright fluent burn
A bruised torrent]

But all cleared
Larks were singing
Again, the April rain ringing
Across the sewn hills,
Among the daffodils


The road winds uphill, but
A wonder will be to sit
On the stone at last -
One star in the west.

George Mackay Brown (1921 - 1996)