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']

48/100 after that Godsent storm

I tell you this, my son:  after

That Godsent storm, I find peace here

These many years with

The grey monks of Eynhallow.

[from ‘The Storm’, George Mackay Brown, 'Selected Poems 1954-1992']

46/100 They looked at nothing

They stood there, in a small flock

At the wooden jetty in Hamnavoe

Till the gang-plank was let down, […]

Most of the women were below

They didn’t speak.  They looked at nothing.

[from ‘Emigrants 1886’, George Mackay Brown, ‘Travellers’]