And on North Uist, we went into the chambered cairn
of Barpa Langass, the oldest standing
roof in northern Europe, from 4000 BC.
We crawled into it and recorded a poem with a harpist.
It was terrible sound, actually.
[LAUGHTER]
"Barpa Langass.
Basho's 'Temple of Eiheiji' is Barpa Langass,
our chambered cairn, our North Uist.
We crouched to crawl in the oldest, darkest of our temples,
each chosen stone carried, with deliberation,
to the right place.
We take turns to create the passage into the paved womb.
Rhodri's plucked harp strings fall in and out
of silence shifting the tone--
throwing a thousand, thousand images, void, into the light
where they reverberate, or flecked, nice.
We hug our knees tighter together in the chamber,
sensing the dark as a membrane of time.
Feeling silence within, before we arrive, and after we leave.
Squaring the circle of longing, reconciling
the need for distance and the desire for settledness.
For what's an ending but the place you begin again."