My favourite place for meeting in central Edinburgh is under the bellies of two larger-than-life giraffes on Leith Walk. The sculptures are brilliantly shaped from rusty car and motorcycle parts, and the words of a poet form a circle round them in the paving stones:
Giraffes! — a people who live between earth and skies Each in his own religious steeple Keeping a lighthouse with his eyes
And it’s funny that I’ve come to like this spot so much, as it was only when I Googled the poet, Roy Campbell, that I discovered he was South African. I should’ve known that, having been an English student in Cape Town, but it was fun finding out this way.
Giraffes! — a people who live between earth and skies Each in his own religious steeple Keeping a lighthouse with his eyes
And it’s funny that I’ve come to like this spot so much, as it was only when I Googled the poet, Roy Campbell, that I discovered he was South African. I should’ve known that, having been an English student in Cape Town, but it was fun finding out this way.
Poem by Roy Campbell (1946)
Sculpture by Helen Denerley (2005)
