Top of the Pile: What I'm Reading Now #4

As well as writing a blog, I recognise the importance of immersing myself in what other people are saying. Over the last few weeks I have read a number of blogs that I just thought 'That's great.' So here is one from Caroline Mary Crew in which the poem at the bottom - Hüm (noun) really took me to Pennines. Okay in actual fact the poem is about the Shetlands but the weather and culture push through.  I particularly loved the image of blustering a deal with the faerie in the fourth stanza. It's full of action and colour.

Hüm (noun) by Jen Hadfield

(For Bo)
Twilight, gloaming;
to walk blind
against the wind;

to be abject; lick snot
and rain from the top lip
like a sick calf.

To be blinded by rain
from the north.
To be blinded
by westerly rain.

To walk uphill
into a tarry peatcut
and bluster a deal
with the Trowes.

To cross the bull's field
in the dark.

To pass in the dark
a gate of hollow bars
inside which the wind is broaling.

To pass in the dark
a byre like a rotten walnut.

To not know the gate
till you run up against it.

Notes:
broal: cry of a cow or other animal; to cry as in pain
hüm: twilight; gloaming
trow: a mischievous fairy
Top of the Pile: What I'm Reading Now #4