Alec Finlay & Ken Cockburn AIR 2010
"The road north is a word-map of Scotland, composed by Alec Finlay & Ken Cockburn as they travel through their homeland, guided by the Japanese poet Basho, whose Oku-no-Hosomichi (Narrow Road to the Deep North) is one of the masterpieces of travel literature. Ken and Alec left Edo (Edinburgh) on May 16, 2010 – the very same date that Basho and his companion Sora departed in 1689 – and when they return, on May 16, 2011, they will publish 53 collaborative audio & visual poems describing the landscapes they have seen and people they have met [...] Our mountain temple, Ryushakuji is the mountain hut, Outlandia."
Outlandia was their destination on 22nd August, 2010.
the road north blog︎︎︎
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6f750a5c1fb00e4ec5d8e122c134757e6efab4ebe6a648ed9553594c9ca5baf9/poem.jpg)
34 circle poem (of a hut) for Niall & Malc
Alec Finlay, 2010
Alec Finlay, 2010
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ff52ceb1360462b71d4a0b6c3cb24aa6d3f9b3b694c57d4916d75f3f369c505c/road-north-1.jpg)
![](https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/40498d677bdd61f4e0053046267d5f8714d7aeb78bd3d8225313c60b86925273/road-north-2.jpg)
Photo by Bruce Gilchrist