So here is the first photo and accompanying poem from my book, Temenos 23 that I want to share. All 23 words were originally hung in the trees in the Wild Garden at The Barn, Banchory for the Flourish project. I chose each word for its links to nature or creativity or pure therapeutic merit. These were then used as a physical word search to encourage people to explore the garden in its entirety and as inspiration for creative writing exercises.

Questions

I hang my questions in the rowan trees,

watch light glint through pinnate leaves

illuminating and dimming freely.

Letters drip golden to the ground below

trickling into passages, furrowed,

beginning the change I want to know.

My weekly weaving between silvered boughs

emboldens colour, lets perfumes arouse

fresh words to my page in the notes of my now.

I raise my eyes and smile at how

one word and a tree compose a vow

to the moment present: ripe, devout.

Poem and photograph both Copyright Elaine Reid 2020.