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Friday 31 August 2012

58/100 Stop, travellers



Stop, travellers.   The way goes no further.
Stop.   Beyond this moor the tracks of wolf and of creatures that have no name.

[from ‘The last gate’, George Mackay Brown, The wreck of the Archangel]


Thursday 30 August 2012

57/100 apocalyptic beasts




But Amos crossed the hill
Certain that arks, pillars of salt, apocalyptic beasts
Would any moment
Cover the boring landscape.

‘[from ‘Fundamentalist’, George Mackay Brown, ‘Travellers’]

Wednesday 29 August 2012

56/100 Master of the granite hewing



This mason, master of the granite hewing,
squaring, last pure chiselling, cold star glitters,
‘There must be a cool place, infirmaria,’

[‘Architect’, from the Foresterhill sequence, George Mackay Brown, from 'Selected Poems 1954-1992']

Tuesday 28 August 2012

55/100 Leif plucked grapes on that shore.




I think there may be land further west
Only the eye of the sun sees it,
An Icelander, Leif,
Plucked grapes on that shore.
[from ‘Tryst in Egilsay: Helmsman, George Mackay Brown, 'Selected Poems 1954-1992']

Monday 27 August 2012

54/100 ‘spinning wool on her wheel’



‘Good’ said the wife at the hearthstone
spinning wool on her wheel.

[from ‘Anne Bevan, Sculptor, Hills, Woolcraft, Stone’, George Mackay Brown Following a lark]

Sunday 26 August 2012

53/100 put honey in his mouth



I am not too ugly a girl
I long to put honey in his mouth,
I would draw a comb through the blown corn of his hair.

[from ‘2, The Girl, One Summer in Gairsay Isle’, George Mackay Brown Following a lark]

Saturday 25 August 2012

52/100 The forge flames



The forge flames, the hammerings, glowings,
End one way -
A cold nail on an anvil.

[from ‘Hill Runes’, George Mackay Brown, 'Selected Poems 1954-1992']