Riverwise

I think perhaps, for each of us, there is a landscape or element of nature with which we particularly identify, from which we draw solace and quiet joy to feed our souls. I walk sometimes with a friend on the moor behind her house. It is a huge, wild space, with 360-degree views and vast skies. There are no trees up there, and very little water. I love it, but it makes me realise that I am a woods and water person. It is something she and I have talked and smiled about – that her soul-space is high on the moor above Pontrhydygroes, while mine is in the valley below, among the woods and waterfalls of the Hafod Estate. Jack Smylie Wild mentions them both in Riverwise, and portrays with love the wonderful shifting landscape of Ceredigion: coastal and inland; moorland, woodland and pasture; fast-flowing streams that become idling rivers. But it is the Teifi in particular that speaks to him. ‘This then, would be my mission – to touch the Teifi with my hands at every season, to listen to the sounds that are made upon her; to imagine her countless creatures, her infinite tremblings in the wind, her myriad appearances and apparitions.’ In the introduction, Smylie Wild says that the book is ‘a tale of friendship, as much about myself as it is about Teifi.’ The chapters, which combine memoir, nature-writing and poetry, are either very short or broken into short sections, which encourages slow reading and contemplation. I was reminded of Slow Television, the mesmeric, almost trance-like experience of following, say, the slow movement of a canal boat in real time. Riverwise is ‘a series of musings’ that ramble and amble in a soothing, slow-living way. I found myself wishing for a reading of the book accompanied by a slow-TV video of the Teifi. And there is, in fact, a lovely, very short, video on YouTube – look for ‘The Misfit Loafer’ – of Smylie Wild reading from and talking about the book. In the video, as in the book, he talks about nature as a powerful healer, whether of mild winter blues or more serious mental-health issues. When we seek out places in nature, he suggests, we are also ‘seeking and finding pieces of the puzzle of the self.’ In tracking the Teifi to its source, he is also revisiting his childhood, seeking the beginnings of river and self. It is the story of a journey, of a quest, that works on several levels, inviting meditation and slow contemplation. It is a book to return to often. -- Suzy Ceulan Hughes @ www.gwales.com