"The Star"

This is a prose poem by one of the most talented and lyrical poets writing in Scotland today. Whenever people ask me, "Wouldn't "Mum" be better off in a home?" - I think of this and it explains so much of what I feel. We are the star-keepers. We know about all the stars that Mum found, and we see them still, even if the night is dark and her eyes grow dim.

There was once a man called Kay who discovered a star. He found it in his telescope and it was golden, the colour of a Sri Lankan topaz. He watched it and watched it, for he knew that this was his star, that this was the first time astronomers and scientists had ever known of its existence. And the star was called after him - Kay's Star.

The man grew older. For a time magazines remembered the anniversary of his discovery, and it was as if his star came back into orbit. But then, one by one, they began to forget. New things were discovered: better ways of playing music, quicker ways of cooking food, easier ways ways of making money. Kay's Star grew less bright; it flickered on the edge of the sky and began to grow faint and grey.

The man could not care for himself any more. He was put into an old people's home where nurses said, "Could you lift your hands, Mr Kay?" and, "Now, we'll soon have you into your bath, won't we?" Every night in the ward, he looked out of the window, for his bed was nearest it, at the stars that crusted the huge heavens. And his eyes wandered across the blue-black, searching always for the star which he had found and which was now lost.

THE STAR from 'Columba' by Kenneth Steven, reprinted here with grateful thanks to the author.

Other works by Kenneth Steven include Iona, Salt & Light, Wild Horses and The Raven's Tale. Mr Steven will take you to old haunts and new, and some of the most beautiful and mysterious of Scotland's landscapes. They will live in your heart and in your spirit, even if you are not free to travel or cannot journey there.