Croftwork - by
The twin died overnight
despite all efforts, feeding colostrum
at the cost of near impalement
on his mother’s horns
Best Scottish Poems 2007
As If A Song - by
She lends me sensual records –
/ I know she’s not leading me on.
/ I started the lending library,
/ books and poems, off…
Being - by
Silent comrade of the distances,
/ Know that space dilates with your own breath;
/ ring out, as a bell into the Earth
/ from the…
Not That It’s Loneliness - by
not that it’s loneliness
/ just one black bird
/ in the blue-grey sky
/
/ not that it’s loneliness
/ just standing in the garden
/ waiting for snow
/
/ not that…
Salvador Dali: Christ of St John of the Cross - by
It is not of this world, and yet it is,
/ And that is how it should be.
/ Strong light hits back and…
On My Father’s Refusal to Renew his Subscription to The Beijing Review - by
He’s fallen out with everyone,
/ including God, but hasn’t had a rift with China.
/ Yet he’s set his face against renewal.
/ ‘Getting near…
Night River - by
sharp
/
/ shore beyond the flats
/
/ wind …
Lookout - by
Nothing in sight but water’s deferrals,
/ deflections, its million-galloned grief;
/ though sometimes, when the light is angled so
/ as to prism inside the…
Yichang - by
in from the riverside
/ where the putter of boat engines dulls
/
/ you practise scales
/ by a low pool among trees
/
/ long slow notes climb…
A Long Shot - by
As your lover on waking recounts her dreams,
/ unruly, striking, unfathomable as herself,
/ your attention wanders
/ to her moving lips, throat, those slim…
Above Dover Beach - by
Behind convolvulus and seeding grass
/ we park.
/ We see not one scuff or rip on the Strait
/ to show
/ two thousand years and more…
Carpe Diem - by
From my study window
/ I see you
/ below in the garden, a hand
/ …