At Cotter Force where
Turner sketched the children
looking down at him from
the six-step waterfall the
sun comes back out midday
to warm the sweet vernal grass.
It is Saturday mid-August as we
drive back through Swaledale the
Cow House with the two red doors
the open windows where the children
pushed the hay for flattening inside.
The rooks and the sheep seem intimates
round these parts as if in concert between
the surrounding Muker hills. The swirling rain
will be back soon so let’s head for the Green
Dragon Inn as fast as we can so we can talk again
to Turner’s ghost and ask him if those wild
childers up and down the six steps perturbed
or inspired his sketch of this Yorkshire dark pool.