Holy Gordon’s Prayer - by
O Lord my God, forgie this swither,
/ pray hear thy servant in his dither.
/ Should ah bide here? or cross the river…
O Lord my God, forgie this swither,
/ pray hear thy servant in his dither.
/ Should ah bide here? or cross the river…
Open the doors! Light of the day, shine in; light of the mind, shine out!
/ We have a building which is…
I.
/
/ On our immigrant Canadian street
/ we heard at least twenty words for frozen,
/ spoken by snow-blonde children named for Icelandic volcanoes,
/ Ukrainian saints…
February, and the rising light leaves nothing illegible.
/ Meall Fuar Mhonaidh, snow-fisted, risks its name,
/ a lump of rock, rounded; a muscled…
The sound of horses’ hooves in market square
/ recalls the riding out to mark the bounds,
/ the summer rites and battles fought…
1. SPL, Summer 1999
/
/ A photograph taken upstairs in the Library
/ of one of your ‘kinetic poems’,
/ the upright rotating bluegreen barber’s pole…
Pu awa the endill scheit o winter.
/ Yank it aff fae the pikes an runkled scruif
/ for the canny moment. Fae…
The bricht rays o the Winter Solstice daws,
/ Streakin oot owre the Mauchline Basin Plain,
/ Lichtin oan a slumberin colossus,
/ The…
The earth as holy ground
/
/ The dancer holds her breath
/ homo-would-be-wise walks the earth
/ boots up and strides the earth
/ which now lies…
Something to die for
/
/ To die: to give up life for
/ to die for means to live for
/ would we want to die…
For a time at least, we are renewables.
/ There is some face, some snowline, or some shore
/ Fuels us, a power-source. Just…
Am I one of the graceless
/ hordes of Saturday shoppers,
/ bowing to the God of consumerism,
/ two for the price of one…