This collection of writing, in the form of fragments, notes, essays and prose poems, records specific moments and observations in a poetic life. Cairn: A Book Review.

Much as a pile of stones stacked at a view point can be a way marker or a memorial, so Kathleen Jamie’s words capture an accumulated gravity.

So many favourites: Painting the yellow door, whale watching, going out in a storm, a description of rain drops on phone wires, pocketing a quartz pebble. All the swifts. All the noticing and remembering.

For a small book, Cairn contains a lot about language, loss, the passing of time. It does not shy away from grief (from the past or for the future) although there is an abundance of beauty and wisdom too.

Feather light graphite drawings by Miek Zwamborn accompany the text.

Cairn, by Kathleen Jamie, published by Sort Of Books.

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