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The Island of Iona

The Island of Iona

Thursday 23rd January 2025

The winner of Journeying's 2022 poetry competition, Wendy Stickley, sent us the wonderful poem below. If you feel you would like to experience what she did, we will be visiting Mull and Iona in 2025. To discover more please visit the 'Journeys 2025' page.

Iona
I stepped where St Columba might have trod
and worn a path towards a sandy bay;
where he, too, might have paused and looked in wonder
before continuing along his way.
I saw the spouting cave he might have known,
leant into winds he also would have battled,
I smelled the seaweed, thick upon the strand,
and heard faint lowing from the highland cattle.
I crossed the shell-fragmented, ancient machair,
past lakes and thickets to a pebble beach,
imagining the great man's humble presence,
the privilege of listening to him teach.
And here, where winds and waves so seldom cease,
I found a deep and elemental peace.

Image: Iona, Traigh an t'Suidhe