.
When first I did see you,
My heart was a drum, beaten,
A fog horn blew out to sea.

When you looked at me,
Stark, true, across blue sky,
Sunshine piercing the clouds.

When you touched me,
Frost thawing at first light,
Misted dews on the heathers.

When you were upon me so,
Could I not but open, bloom,
Softly, wind on the petal.

When your hot eyes got me,
Set smoulder to stoked flame,
Aye, I burned for you.

Wee dovey singing in tree,
The sun shall soon rise
Greater than love,
But not for me.

Red deer on the fray moors,
The winds embrace you
For you are rich,
But I am poor.

Wildflowers all bright in gang,
Good earth psalms you
Deep in rootings,
I never sang.

Dark feathered crow moaning,
I have suffered mean loss,
My truest love gone,
Now I must rove.

.
If our eyes
Should latch
Whilst pretending
To gaze unconcerned,
On some inconsequential street
Into days with sun and rainbows,
Dandy as lions on fields of praise,
Magical in bluish skies, mysterious
As eyes grasping without guile nor plan
Nor pains, then we might love as birds low,
Sing above, then we might truly be, become
Alive in the light of another lone, pining star
Under the infinite, shining, unruly heavens.

Out on the breakers
Eyes in the sea are watching me
But seals never speak

The sea birds are gulling
Always they argue over shells
I know how they feel

Long across the heath
The piebald mountains cradle me
But snows, they only whisper

The stationary stone village
Is thatched in chalk and grey wood
Happy in branch without trees

If I approach you my hair feints,
In the wind like my heart.

If I look at you my eyes glaze up,
A beautiful birdy flies by.

What little words we seldom share,
I show such trouble speaking.

What little time near you I spend,
I have such fainty breathing.

Rain drops feel like your finger tips,
What I imagine touch to be.

Temperate waters in the harbour,
To carry boats fine out to sea.

It's been long
A mighty cold spring
Out in the wind
We lost touch, something
Now I can't remember what went wrong
I only remember what days have befallen

It was so silver
It was so silver and gold
But I felt small
Beside an ocean of wanting
And currents they grow, emptiness flows
From a wild sea they rose, currents they grow

But if you'd just call
If you'd just call me sometime
I'd make us warm coffee and tea
Just for us, the way you once loved it from me
Why won't you call
I'd be your love once more

I'd pick up the pieces we left by the sea
I'd make you dark coffee and rose tea for me
And you would let me give you my love
I'd fix us some coffee and brew up some tea
I'd give you my love
I'd give it so free

.
Oh Girleen, leave that dark, ****-covered rock

And watch no more the waves white-capped with foam                                

Nor listen to their sighs; they only mock

Your lonely sorrowed heart; now come back home.



I don’t watch each wave that sweeps and falls,

I don’t heed the sobbing of the sea –

I’m listening for my own true lover’s call

There, can you hear now? He’s calling me….



Ah Girleen, sure it’s only the wild, wild wind,

A-wailing o’er the waters its sad song;

Put all these thoughts of him far from your mind-

To our own good god alone, the dead belong.



Ye lie, he’s mine, for from the grey sea-mist.

Yesterday evening when the sun sunk low

He came and took me in his arms and kissed my mouth

Just like he used to, long ago.



And so, I’ll not go home, but here I’ll stay

For maybe, in the smoky gloamin’ dim,

He’ll come again out o’er the showers o’ spray

And take me o’er the ragin’ seas with him.

.
in the whites of our eyes,
no language can interpret,
in the skins of lost bodies,
no soul can birth rich flesh,
in two hearts beating twined,
by all what blight moon shows.

i have walked alone as you,
creeping in avenues so alone,
i have made peace in sorrows,
that you share and i sure know,
we both stride with mists of rains,
white washed by what moon shows.

this world, cast for walking ghosts,
those who know but shadow speak,
avenues trod, unspoken indifferences,
spoke fingers that long for heated touch,
bodies crying need for moist engulfments,
beneath shroud, beams, what moon shows.
.

I skip my steps
when off to school,
In circles of lads
I hear only you.

at the dance hall
I could not breathe,
you with another
and softy I plead,

will you not notice
my hair so dressed
won't you allow me,
bright end to unrest

each sun, the rain,
each morn the lark

each day blind eyes,
each cry drops night

because of black hair
the crow will nae fly,
white shells your skin,
white bird of my eyes.

so far beyond banks,
my heart out to sea,
will you not notice,
my cry, dear laddie?

.
So afar and tall are you to me,
For you are from shining mountains,
Higher than the clouds, your brow,
Darker than the heavens, your hair.

So small and fey am I to you,
For I am but lone whisper in glens,
Slight as one firefly on the moors
And my reflection but a tiny glow.

    Only to spark at edge of pools dark,
    Only to fly when in harnessing arms.

I crossed a bridge to be with you,
The streams slipping times away,
Beneath my girlhood, all in a rush,
Then I entered the deepest wood.

So small and wan was I to you,
For you are from snowy mountains
And I am from rain-watery glens,
For you are portrait and I bokeh.

    One day the woods engulfed me strong,
    One night the bridge I crossed was gone.
.

.
In a flower bed
Of rose and thorn,
Scarlet and green,
As we stem into one
Growth under blankets
White with joy, blue
As blood, we pluck
The petals left for us,
We tangle in thickets,
Moisted lips of heaven
Of clover and of daisy,
Milky as the wet stars,
Honeyed in the night
Hive and sumptuous
Joining, like clouds,
Opening above, we
Drench ourselves, cry
In drops, teary rains
That break, inwards,
Eyes, entwining with
Hot limbs unknotted
Till there is the spent
Wonder of skin scent,
Steeps of salt and sea,
Each leftover of touch
An outcast, a grieving.
.

I once wished to end together,
I wanted you so close and dear,
I wanted you like bees in heather,
How curious, strange to end familiars.

We grew in fondness, each landed eye,
O seasons turned through sun and chill,
Grew up together, teased and pried,
In the village schoolyards upon a hill.

And lately I have come to love you,
Greatly I have felt youths quickening,
Wishing for us to start as lovers true,
But playgrounds promise no beginnings.

There is nary a tree where I do live
And highlands beyond are naked,
Yet all is green and all is grey.

If you listen a tad you will hear not,
But the race and howl of windy lot
And all is green and all is grey.

The glens are bare and now remote,
The narrow roads are but outlines,
Yet all is green, muted in throat.

Little boats are waiting in harbour,
The sea is a full glass of milky grey,
All is green, be glad, lass be gay.

And I breathe where I wait and live,
O mountains are snowy and grave,
Yet green, grey, all tarnish today.

The clouds are windy
And foreign, light rays
In the sky is my dream,
I am nestled in wave
As we run sleepy to shore.

In the wet sands of beach
Are markings of birds,
Little traces before flight,
Their steps to heaven,
Before rain washes away.

The stars are gleaming
To know us, but I only
Know you, what mystery
There is in knowing,
How flesh is temporary
And the eye eternal.

Please come be with me
Into breaking love dawn,
Please come to know me,
Grab hold of the wind,
Set me to flame like stars
Above, I only know you.

I saw the sun in your face,
A little cloud in eye,
I felt the earth was to make,
Dreams we both spied.

But that was then, when,
We had one day

And this was hope,
We wished, we prayed,

But the sun fell into cloud
And darkened eyes,
But the earth was unmade,
In showers we both cried.

.
Must your arms
Be a circle of stones
Locked with truest heavens
Embracing me?

Must your hair
Branch in a wood so deep
Impenetrable and unspeaking
Where lost are souls?

O how your love was so tall,
Such a frame for me to climb,
But I never could see stars up there
From shy ground I felt you looking down.

Must your eyes
Make me see as someone
Who suffered lifelong blind
Lidless in the sun?

*O how your love was precious,
A plaything just to dole out only,
The driest morsel after long famine
And I, a feather in winds without sky.

If I approach you my hair feints,
In the wind like my heart.

If I look at you my eyes glaze up,
A beautiful birdy flies by.

What little words we seldom share,
I show such trouble speaking.

What little time near you I spend,
I have such fainty breathing.

Rain drops feel like your finger tips,
What I imagine touch to be.

Temperate waters in the harbour,
To carry boats fine out to sea.

stars are held in a window
and sometimes the moon,

lopsided stacks of books,
knotty papers are strewn,

i like to rest on the boards,
day dream, scents of pine,

it's quite a lovely mess up,
still have space to dress up,

in a nook are some shelves,
i trained to hold dear photos,

so love to see in my wee loft,
poems, my cat, postcard art,

and my pane glass view I call,
full moon in garland of stars.

listen -
hear no sound, feel
only wind on its way, ghostly
nothing's, but hush to sharp wings
of ocean birds so fraying as they cut
the sky, shuttle to fairways, far aways,
in plaintive cries, i hear what they say,
sailing into the jeweled skylights, but i
am only weight of air, still on ground,
i mumble out, sidle the bone tides
that roll to land, grains of clarity,
i am mist and tear, a world
of hollow, i am that sound -
of ocean in a shell.