December

The year dwindles and glows
to December's red jewel
my birth month.

The sky blushes,
and lays it cheek
on the sparkling fields.

Then dusk swaddles the cattle,
their silhouettes
simple as faith.

These nights are gifts,
our hands unwrapping the darkness
to see what we have.

The train rushes, ecstatic,
to where you are,
my bright star.

Carol Ann Duffy {2005}

The Hive

Thou seemst ~ a little diety!

Anacreon, Ode 34,

To the bee {fifth century BC}

Chapter 2, p59 " How would Human beings ever have made love to each other without honey and bee to help them? It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that, in all cultures and at all times, honey and love have enjoyed a special relationship. Not only has honey been the literal food of lovers, it has provided them with the words for expressing their love..."

Poems from Kevin Macneil ~ Love and Zen

i see you rising

'Dh' iarr am muir a thadhal'
'The sea requested its visit'

i see you rising over lochs
and where your father sleeps
is pouring through your eyes,
his green boat, broken, cradled in your arms

the Minch is calmer tonight,
the waves uneasy
under a stary, disquieting, safisfying breeze

***

The Flowers

I said to the flowers: 'You're shining'.
The flowers asked me: 'Keep breathing out'.
I said to the rain showers: 'You are my tears'.
The rain showers told me: 'As you say, we are your tears'.

And the flowers were so much brighter
so much more alive
so much more human.

Between tears
I begged and
begged of the flowers:
'Keep on breathing in.'

Outer Hebrides