It Was Easier - by
Now over the map that took ten million years
/ Of rain and sun to crust like boiler-slag,
/ The lines of fighting men…
World War II
Good Angel - by
Ten thousand bullets fired,
/ all the angry wasps in the world,
/ and devil the one to sting me:
/ I’m the lucky…
Polemical Elegy for Reinhardt Heydrich - by
You were being driven down to Prague
/ when a fellow in blue dungarees started shooting
/ so you stood up beside the chauffeur…
After Lunch, Ekali - by
September 1st, 1939.
/
/ Cicalas burst the air, a heat-haze quivers
/ on the pale plain, the glittering…
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…
Latha Foghair - by
’S mi air an t-slios ud
/ latha foghair,
/ na sligean a’ sianail mum chluasan
/ agus sianar marbh ri mo ghualainn,
/ rag-mharbh – is reòthta…
Women of the Happy Island (extract) - by
(The series of 47 soliloquies is about the women left behind on the
/ Isle of Barra during the Second World…
A Night Fire Call - by
Dawn breaks and I discover myself
/ On top of a wall much higher than I imagined
/ Which is on top of a…
Action Stations - by
‘A-a-ll the starboard watch!’
/ ‘Shairly no again!
/ What’s the wather like?’
/ ‘Cauld, wi sleet and rain.’
/
/ ‘Lofty. Depth-charge sentry.
/ Knocker. You’re stand-by.
/ Haggis. On the gun.
/ Shorty.
from Mochtàr is Dùghall - by
[Fosgladh]
/
/ Mhochtàir is Dhùghaill, choinnich sibh
/ an comann buan gun chòmhradh.
/
/ B’iad fraighean an taigh chèilidh dhuibh
/ an cactas ceuste, leònte.
/
/ B’i ‘n aoigheachd an…
Old Photograph - by
It is VE Night, Tobermory.
/ Cottages blaze and shimmer in the mirror of the bay.
/ Light is necklaced everywhere,
/ on the…