Long Brae Poems

One time a barefooted pickney dancing on the street
I beat puhn pan an' wanda how life could be sweet
For my yai quadrilled to distant cling-cling roost and feel
A longing to change their parliament in my...

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He danced on the decks of tossing ships, danced only for dimes
He danced to the lash and sound of whips, hip moving like dream
And when he reasoned, his words sublime brought heavenly climes
Dance from plantation...

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Mesmerized, by the circular dancing sway                             ...

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***At the bequest of a friend 
or two this poem is a 
continuation of Tennyson''s
 'Ulysses'; though I don't
expect much glory for this
write, it was one of my
finer poetic attempts; 
especially Tennyson who
I think was...

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Ever since I left you I have 
been through hell 
With so much pain that i 
can't tell
it’s like a big dark cloud 
Hovering over my soul
From my north to my south 
pole
I feel like...

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Times such as these test body soul and mind
So should our thoughts be pain and dark confined
Or loosed to concentrate on brighter things
Like furry puppies, flowers and girls on swings

In this bright morning sun as...

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Who or what was this Gretna Green? I oft' did ponder
And English heroine or a fetching greensward? I oft' did wonder!
I learned on my bewildering computer and with my 'cyclopedia at hand,
'Tis a village amid...

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I have seen this river swell mighty
Like a woman with fetus near to come
I have seen it lift its burden heavy
Cottaless and laughing in its kingdom
        But to...

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When I look up at the pristine Colorado sky,
And see flocks of Canadian geese on the fly,
And watch squirrels hide their winter's fare in a secret cache,
Then I know that once again a glorious autumn...

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Lo' beneigh' the random bield, bewails upo' the leaf
An' lea'e me naught but grief and pain, as moone breaks through the heath
Upo' the gilded braes we kissed, luve sang a zephyrs cry
Where say, my luve,...

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TIME   AND   PLACE


Spring is found in the Lowland valleys with gowan-filled braes of Scotland
When the early-reaching flowers bloom in cool freshness,  and
The air is bracing and always new-washed-glass clean ...

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SEASONAL    PLACES


Spring is found in the Lowland valleys with gowan-filled braes of Scotland
When the early-reaching flowers bloom in cool freshness,  and
The air is bracing and always new-washed-glass clean  -
With the...

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Bagpipes in short high sounding squeals 
 that loudly play to the ears appeal
 some haunting distant melodic foreboding malaise,
stretching across an isle of green-blue ways,
 freed open and gingerly
 along the lochs and rivers...

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I've climbed the Highland summit 
overlooking Ceilidh Brae
down to Weeping Meadow 
where the hounds of hell would bay
and maybe I was dreaming 
when I stumbled home at dawn
the pipes were playing softly 
and Elizabeth was...

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Majestic, barren, rock-cropped braes ascend—
Arrayed, green-clad, in heather, gorse, and fern—
As mid-day, misty, dark’ning clouds descend
To cold-embrace each soaring tor and burn.

From heights unseen a torrent cascades free,
Unfettered into deep Ben Nevis’ glen;
Then onwards toward...

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Sullen would be onset of grey, indivisible-dawning;
Soon, lifting mist dissipating beneath the brae.
Comes then a gentle heat arising with the morning...
Thus the remaking of another new, glorious day.

Sun-kissed slopes now aglow with purple blaze,
Vast moorlands...

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There is a river, and its vigor never cease
There is a river, the Martha Brae river
I have seen it and knew strange peace
Looking on its brown spate of muddy water
I see no Pharpar nor Abana...

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Great Spirit whispers on breathing breeze; 'It is time',
puce plume in saffron noon signals hunt's aborning,
ThunderBeasts' harrowing hooves erupt Great Plains grime,
soon will ail, widow's wail like a wild dove's mourning...

Ancient wisdom, ebony eyes, high...

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Mary, Mary how contrary
why does your garden grow?
with old tin cans and frying pans
and muddy boots all in a row.

Car piled high with spider's webs
Their spindly smiles, their lovely legs.
Come and say 'Good mourn ye...

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From the Faughan river valley
To Binevenaghs mighty brow
I love these roads to travel
Wish I could tread them now

To in an instant be propelled
Landing on that grassy slope
That overlooks Magilligan strand
Would be my greatest hope

To take...

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(This is what the Lisa Marr song "In California" would have sounded like if she was
brought up in Scotland)

In Caledonia, I'm dealing blow
In all the places we used to go
Just a phone call away
I'll send...

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The Windy Month of March

Along the road I strolled
With my bonnie Chlo
As cheerful as a lark
In the windy month of March,
When the wind doffed
My bunnet off.

Down the Brae I dashed
Whilst my Chloe did laugh
As I...

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I rambled once riding my bicycle
on a foggy day of winter.
The fog remained suspended long in the atmosphere
so impatient I to go out
for such a weather decades not seen.

Going farther and farther
excited seeing the veiled...

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November 9, 2010

My Son


Your mother’s excitement upon knowing you will be borne
After seven years of waiting, now we are blessed
A herald from heaven whispered a message on that morn
That someone will come to complete our...

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The Call of the Highlands

Oh I'd love a day out in the heather,
With a ghillie a gun and a stick,
I'd stalk 'cross the moors, crawl about on all fours
All the way from Fort William to...

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