POEM TITLE
The Ship That Never Sailed
POEM
follow
yellow brick road
from Lobster Pot
follow
yellow
flipflops
follow
double yellows
fifteen white boats
to the ship
that never
sailed
oysters lobsters
poor man’s catch
for prisoners
of Blackness Castle
old souls lurk
shot in the back
dark corners
of the past
salt air fortress
ladder-like
climbs to cosmos
Escher’s stairs
sliding in
and out
of time
Great Hall
hearth tombstone
wind tunnels
sheer drops
Castle impregnable
mind your head
on Stern Tower
iron eyes on door
Water Gate
level platform
Wall Walk
Firth of Forth Bridge
triangular on horizon
Gun Room
nooks and crannies
attacker’s spyholes
door-carved names
Inverscotia 1941
a cross
M.R.
A.K.
seascape windows
frame
place head
into openings
create a portrait
sea-air salt-spray
colony of gulls
freedom flouting
incarcerated souls
kelp-tide blanket
shrouding boulders
shouldering land
waves
lapping
gentler
whisperings
of the
un
remembered
POEM TITLE
The Lobster Pot, Blackness on Sea [a found poem]
POEM
mind the red
step back
in time
lifebuoys circular
overhead lifelines
candy striped Os
gulp them down like
hovering haloes
new perspectives
saving lives
SAVE ME FIRST!
mermaids
sing in unison
piercing gathering darkness
siren sisters salute tides
Blackness on Sea
wash your hands in sea kelp
bathe your eyes in
lobster gazers
scallop trailblazers
take me to the stars
‘Rushed off our feet!’
Nun Dog saves the day!
jumping canvas-to-canvas
herding us like sheep
wall fiddle
accordion fish
fresh North Lobster
lone mariner
soul gazes
from port side
black and white
distilled in time
blue eyes sailing
tides have turned
tourists tuck in
lobster burgers
lobster mayonnaise
tankard chandeliers
trophies of good times
highland flings
on shores of Blackness
wash your hands in sea kelp
bathe your eyes in
flags from every country
international appetite
quirky eccentricities
artistic antiquities
twinned with St. Tropez
tambourine, accordion, fiddle
‘Wow, is all I can say!’
thoughts welcome
thinking space
champagne stacked
shoulder to shoulder
like wartime soldiers
protecting good times
high tides
crail crab
Nipperous Fiferae
Guinness Time
Have this one with me!
cask ale wooden barrels
Burke’s Stout
curiouser and curiouser
Fire Exit green guy running
down rabbit hole
look up!
all sorts of fishing boats
above our souls
white sails triangular
flapping in breeze
fishwives curse cod
ripping out insides
she sits opposite
picture of mother
flora reclaiming canvas
Scottish flag
lighthouse on bay
guiding the way
stormy waters
follow the sound of
banjo playing priest
framed red
bagpipes on shore
an Irish jig is
central compass
melting noughts
Daliesque
ceiling hung
north wind spun
navigating future
mackerel submarine submerged
‘Wasp climbing up window dive-bombed a fly!’
dog in blue y-fronts
superhero stick-fetcher!
Wash your hands in sea kelp
bathe your eyes in
Scotch Plaice
Prime Halibut
Boiling Fowl
Herring Roes
Ruth Davidson’s Tattooed Foot
Lybster
Pub Sweet Pub
Blackness sur la Mer est braw!
paddles on the wall
black cat sees all
Colm’s paintings
nameless unsigned
creative mastermind
characters frame-jump
new narrative canvases
good vibes
relaxation nation
lose control
you’re never alone
with a lobster!
take your photo in the bottle
WE’RE ALL DOOMED
Smell of the Day
NEVER MIND
ladder to nowhere
Keep Scotland Weird