from At Maldon - by
Waves beating up against cliffs.
/ Cliffs holding hard against waves.
/
/ …
Waves beating up against cliffs.
/ Cliffs holding hard against waves.
/
/ …
A broken necklace of crofts
/ strewn across the sandstone floor
/ of the north Caithness coast
/ these sea-beat parishes where the fields
/ are…
Nan robh sinn an Talasgar air an tràigh
/ far a bheil am beul mòr bàn
/ a’ fosgladh eadar dà ghiall chruaidh,
/ Rubha nan…
And when at last the road
/ gives out, I’ll walk –
/ harsh grass, sea-maws,
/ lichen-crusted bedrock –
/
/ and hole up the cold
/ summer…
Across the bay, they’re building a house
/ with a glass wall, panes all the way up
/
/ into the gable, windows that wrap
/ around…
I could blame da wye da sea is smoothed
/ da stanes; da sylk o touch; da waelin, laevin;
/ an will da haert…
(from The Four Seasons)
/
/ Seen from the machair’s edge
/ miles of white sand swathe north.
/ The light is Greek, I’m told,
/ The green…
This page is a cloud between whose fraying edges
/ a headland with mountains appears brokenly
/ then is hidden again until what emerges
/ from…
Where sea and land meet, begin there.
/ The ampersand, the join, is a fault
/ which caused jagged peaks to rise –
/ from…
La mer, tu la regardes et tu cherches
/ un mot
/ La vague cogne les récifs
/
/ Tu t’éloignes du bord
/ Ne pas mouiller tes chaussures…
The surf choruses salted ritual,
/ the crescendo of milky waves turn on each other
/ and then the shore rolls up and out…
Alone in this bay near Port Mary
/ only the waves creeping in
/ and the squeal of a buzzard
/ high on a clifftop…
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