The GoLakes Travel Poet in Motion Kirstie Pelling has been out and about this month by train, finding poetic inspiration on some of the classic Lakeland lines. She began with the service from Oxenholme to Windermere…

“A gateway to the Central Lakes, the journey from Oxenholme to Windermere is a short and scenic ride passing through a handful of working Lakeland villages, including Kendal, Burneside and Staveley. From the tall towers of the James Cropper Paper Mill looking like they’re about to go up in a puff of smoke, to the sheep pens and then the building yards that start to multiply as the Kendal approaches, you view authentic Cumbria at work and play. And often you see things you wouldn’t notice in a car, especially when they are pointed out to you by fellow passengers.

Man from Murmansk

by Kirstie Pelling

Day squeezes through the cracks in night.

Raindrops freeze. They will never fall.

Darkness leaves us, wanting more.

We board together. Take our seats.

Far apart. I coddle cold feet,

pretend my down coat is duvet.

He huddles into wool; tucks neat,

folded scarf under trimmed, grey beard.

The weak sun turns rime into dew.

I dream of bed, of sleep, of you.

He gestures to the frosted sheep,

announcing this is just like home,

a place he knew well, long ago.

“Murmansk. Without its winter coat.”

I smile, unsure of what he means.

Deserted? Naked? Cold? Remote?

We sit. We look. We contemplate.

We think a bit about our Norths.

A brief encounter? Yes. Of sorts.

Two random people joined in thought,

brought here by a train. Two remote

places, seemingly now the same.

“The difference is in degrees,”

he says. I never learn his name.

But this fleeting journey changes me.

While in Lakeland he sees Russia,

soft and warm without winter snows,

I no longer see Siberia,

and I could swear that Kentmere glows

Man from Murmansk poem ©Kirstie Pelling 2014 All Rights Reserved.

No reproduction without authors permission.