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Friday 12 October 2012

100/100 For dragon eggs?




Shall we open the door?  What story, the old or the new?
We have lived so long and so well
In our green fable
Shall we open the doors? 

[from ‘Uranium 2’, George Mackay Brown, ‘Travellers’]

Thursday 11 October 2012

99/100 The Westray monks




Sixteen walkers about the church,
Heads bare as stone,
Long striders, deep-voiced, rough-handed.
‘Brother wind, gentle sister raindrops’ –
That’s what they call this black whirl of storm.
They haven’t a sword between them.
Here they come, in procession
Demure and harmless as girls

[v.3, Twelfth-Century Norse Lyrics of Rognvald Kolson, Bard and Saint, George Mackay Brown, from Selected Poems 1954-1992]

Wednesday 10 October 2012

98/100 Returning from Quoyloo brewery




‘Oh, she’ll be back.   That dear one
Is gold of our corn
She’s Orkney rain and spindrift ...’

[from ‘Gossip in Hamnavoe:  about a girl’, George Mackay Brown, ‘Travellers’]

No extra creativity about this one - just a September 1st shower over Hoy.

Tuesday 9 October 2012

97/100 Drop my harp




I have said to Erling Saltfingers, Drop my harp
Through a green wave, off Yesnaby.
Next time you row to the lobsters. 

[from The Five Voyages of Arnor, George Mackay Brown, 'Selected poems 1952-1992']

Monday 8 October 2012

96/100 Hill Runes




The horsemen are red in the stable
With whisky and wrath.
The petrol drinker is in the hills.

[from Hill Runes, George Mackay Brown, 'Selected poems 1952-1992']

Sunday 7 October 2012

95/100 A summer midnight




Orkney turns upon poles of light and darkness
A summer midnight, the north
Is red with the two lamps of dawn and sunset.

[The Northern Sky, from ‘Haiku for the Holy Places, George Mackay Brown, ‘Travellers’]