At the Tomb of Robert the Bruce, Dunfermline Abbey - by
In any other country
/ Your tomb
/ Would have been worn smooth
/ By our devotions
/
/ But here the notice says:
/ ‘Please do not touch.’
/
/ They should have…
remembrance
Yper - by
At length grandfather walked the Ypres road
/ From Poperinghe, to where the army laid
/ (At Hagle Dump) the remnants of his son:
/ A…
Glory - by
I canna’ see ye, lad, I canna’ see ye,
/ For a’ yon glory that’s aboot yer heid,
/ Yon…
The Forfar Bus - by
On the Forfar ‘bus in a morn of spring,
/ A nipping wind and the frost’s sharp sting;
/ And I can’t tell why,…
Laugharne Churchyard in 1954 - by
Three thousand miles and nearly half a year
/ Away from a drab November afternoon, hysterics
/ Of friends forgotten, and also the plain…
Pilgrimage: Being the thoughts of an ex-soldier at Ypres, 8/8/28 - by
Me, an’ Jean, an’ the bairn;
/ The wee lad spierin’ an’ starin’;
/ Daunderin’ quiet an’ douce-like doun
/ The Menin road into Ypres toun.
/ ‘Did…
A Memory of Death - by
Nineteen fifty six was a momentous year,
/ The year of Suez…
For Alasdair - by
Standan here on a fogg-yirdit stane,
/ drappan the bricht flees on the broun spate,
/ I’m thinkan o ye, liggan thonder…
On Revisiting the Somme - by
If I were but a Journalist,
/ And had a heading every day
/ In double-column caps, I wist
/ I, too, could make it…
Last Bus Ride in July – a Mother Speaks (Genocide – Srebrenica, July, 1995; Karadzic captured – Belgrade, July, 2008) - by
Summer grass is shoulder high once more, / higher than my sons will ever be.
Lest… - by
‘They make so little difference, the brass, / the tears. Can’t you leave us be?’
/ …
Remembrance Day - by
Some one was singing
/ Up a twisty stair,
/ A fragment…