Puffins, windblown
/ come careering in
/ wings tilted
/ bright feet braced
/ outstretched
/ to catch the ledge.
/ They gather in rows
/ on narrow balconies
/ tiny, gaudy, gossiping gods
/ paintbox beaks a-gabble
/ heads…
ah kent yi wir cummin
/ an goin
/ thi ebb an flo
/ o ma
/ body clenchin
/ letting…
Beyond you America
/ behind you Stromness
/ far from me now
/ the tides changing on you
/ as I walk the crowded mile
/ of Byres Road, you…
Expansive skies
/ as of Dutch-masters
/ but these are faster:
/ shifting light tones.
/
/ Sea colours assault
/ both shores and eyes.
/ A lot of angry white
/ breaking from brilliance.
/
/ Dry…
Gone the salt-washed oyster-shell
/ of sky, the bonxies’ aerobatic jazz,
/ bass riff of tractor and ferry.
/ Gone the chorusline of jiving
/ thrift, the…
i.m. Mike and Barbara Heasman
/
/ Let us now give thanks
/ for these salt-blown
/
/ wind-burned pastures
/ where outgrass and timothy
/ shrink from the harrow of the…
For Catherine and Jamie
/
/ It is big sky and its changes,
/ the sea all round and the waters within.
/ It is the way…
