In The Poetry

The Lover (after Propertius)

Poor mortals, with your horoscopes and blood-tests -
what hope is there for you? Even if the plane
lands you safely, why should you not return
to your home in flames or ruins, your wife absconded,
the children blind and dying in their cots?
Even sitting quiet in a locked room
the perils are infinite and unforeseeable.
Only [...]

Most people have heard of the island of St. Kilda which is the outermost of the outer Hebrides because they think of it as a place of asylum – as such a lonely place. But for that reason everybody goes there so it isn’t. If you’re looking for asylum in the Hebrides you should go [...]

The White Lie

I have never opened a book in my life,
made love to a woman, picked up a knife,
taken a drink, caught the first train
or walked beyond the last house in the lane.

Nor could I put a name to my own face.
Everything we know to be the case
draws its signal colour off the sight
till what [...]