The Hill Burns - by
So without sediment
/ Run the clear burns of my country,
/ Fiercely pure,
/ Transparent as light
/ Gathered into its own unity,
/ Lucent and without colour;
/ Or green,
/ Like…
Place: Highlands & Islands
Loch Avon - by
Loch A’an, Loch A’an, hoo deep ye lie!
/ Tell nane yer depth and nane shall I.
/ Bricht though yer deepmaist pit may…
Highland Shooting Lodge - by
Crouched up beneath a crowd of Grampian hills,
/ this old house waits to hear the report of guns
/ crisping the Autumn…
The Tenant - by
The Tenant’s gane, the Lodge is shut;
/ Nae mair, until the Twalth return,
/ We’ll see him threshin’ at the burn
/ Or sittin’ shiverin’…
Assynt and Edinburgh - by
From the corner of Scotland I know so well
/ I see Edinburgh sprawling like seven cats
/ on its seven hills beside…
October Running - by
A Small Car’s Day
/
/ The Highland Road’s been sung before and will be sung again,
/ So long as bards give thanks for…
Lorca on Morar - by
Lorca:
/
/ ‘Areesaig’, ‘Morrarr…’
/ the beach stands up
/ in little whirlwinds of ash
/ in my Hispanic mouth,
/
/ the dunes become chintz
/ statues of white sand,
/ poodles with griffon…
Srath Nabhair - by
Anns an adhar dhubh-ghorm ud,
/ à irde na sìorraidheachd os ar cionn,
/ bha rionnag a’priobadh ruinn
/ ’ s I freagairt mireadh an teine
/ ann…
Spirit of the Cloutie Tree - by
Mother of all stravaigers, where they pass through
/ she stays, in an oily haze of exhaust
/ from untaxed bangers, leaky caravans –
/ clearing…
Kylesku - by
All afternoon the sun burned your forehead and face,
/ driving for miles through peatscrapes,
/ bare rock ridges rising from moorland, driving through…
A Very Small Miracle - by
A lamb was born near Dunnet Head,
/ tumbling in a yellow broth of legs
/ on the dark earth,
/ finding its feet just before
/ the…
Assent - by
The Whaligoe Steps, Caithness
/
/ Men tied these knots round bundles
/ of themselves, round gear and harvest,
/ bare possession, stuff. Hitched rawness
/ to the skin,…