from fault line

XVI

we took turns making tea
for each other
insurgents
in the woods
spore & stone
& song engines

commentary:

paired crows
in the bare ash
tree

XVII

I have planted tansy
& angelica
thoughts may be taken
in at the eyes
it can’t be said
we were sleeping
we saw the
machines arrive

commentary:

crows in
one line
bowing
to ice
the exegesis

XVIII

old men greet me
a nod & a smile
in Helensburgh
the chandler
of Rhu is an old friend
of an old friend
we think
they cannot know
my heart

commentary:

now water under
thin scabs ice crusts
fox & I look
for retreat
neither able
to walk on water
any longer
fox walks
through wood
crows sit on
ice floating rocks
tilt heads in contemplation
sip running water
one of the pleasures
turning on water
turning
on water

XX

travel with ghosts
accompany spectres
the sign here reads
report anything suspicious
oak
birch
fern
hazel
be vigilant

commentary:

one just
one maybe
the last just
one long
look
ice quelling
water’s flows
no other crescent
moon tides
only

XXI

the ocean’s oracle
trident

commentary:

unspilling to under
this firth bridge
starling clouds
together dispersing night
after night after
seasons’ years
again
treatise worlded

XXII

to have loved
to continue loving

to have loved enough
to have loved

to continue love
to have loving

commentary:

one time
log on riverflow
against tide
modulation
an otter

XXIII

no leaf soars like that
if you skin something
it dies

or is dead

commentary:

where raw im
permanence stands
the familiar is
not
but ah forget
my fate

XXIV

maybe a small zeus
crying out
until the hills shake
these days
any old developer
or military
cuts his oaks
assassins in the bushes

commentary:

past the base gate
due south
rattling heavy
along steel rails
engines
at each end
Cerberus
the name plate
no passengers
quotidian driver
barriers
at the crossing

XXV

hunting mushrooms again
in woods by the sea
only black ships slipping
silent through unspeaking water

commentary:

today now we vote
war lords or
incubi
lines to cross

Hill of Dun
tracked with
who we are
flowering gorse

XXVI

Ruairidh trod
the young lavender down
we forgive children anything
sometimes they become men
in marching boots

commentary:

on water
turning
caroming on water
one of the pleasures
the bird’s
three notes
one two three
one

XXVII

the petals fall
nothing can stop them

the petals fall
there is nothing to stop them

the petals fall
the rose broken

she rises broken hearted
so we change

commentary:

hammered wedge of geese
cleaving sky through
which leaps as blue split
kindling from my axe

XXVIII

a philosophic stance
to despise landowners
here’s one
fencing in rosebay willow herb
& warheads
to keep the berries
from touching ground
we laid them on straw
went at dusk
for the mushrooms

commentary:

hands wide apart
skein unravelled
what’s in mind