I am going further north, he said

I do not know what I will find

perhaps I will not come back

all I know is that I must seek

this somewhere with all my soul

In the 7th century, Irish hermit monks left the island of Iona and dared to cross an unforgiving ocean to the wild, unknown shores of Iceland. What did they find there, on the edge of their world?

Inspired by this incredible journey, poet Kenneth Steven distilled their experience into this sequence of poems that are sparse and pared to the bone, suggesting simple fragments of story recorded by the monks after their return to Scotland.

A Song Among the Stones has been taken and interpreted by numerous artists and musicians in Scotland and beyond, the latest of whom is Simon de Voil. 

‘A poetic voice of great sensitivity’

~ Alexander McCall Smith

Kenneth Steven is first and foremost a poet. Many of his collections have appeared over the years, from Wild Goose Publications, Saint Andrew Press and SPCK on this side of the Atlantic, and from Cascade Books and Paraclete Press in the United States. He has written and presented numerous features and essays for BBC Radio.

Kenneth has written and had published short fiction and several novels; his non-fiction essays have appeared too. He’s very much a children’s author and a translator from Norwegian.

But it’s poetry that’s closest to his heart, and much of the inspiration for that work has sprung from the island of Iona. This is where his half-sister Helen Steven was Peace and Justice worker for the Iona Community, and it’s where for a decade he and his wife Kristina have led an annual Celtic Christian retreat.