Long Souter Poems

The House on Lake Maggiore

The house on Lake Maggiore was reality, a physical truth, 
my imagination became the artist.

The day has become  a deckchair, gently folding itself up
as my walk leads me into a...

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The Bitter Bite of Night!

Night creeps in sotto voce
melding with the mellowing village life.
Night, a seemingly mischievous cat,
slips along incognito in its prankish mood,
teasing any light that tries to define her.
Night now casts darkness into...

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ENOUGH!

I felt deaf from the ‘noise’ of information,
constantly butting, buzzing against my mantra of:
“The quieter you are… the more you… hear!”
At present, my lifestyle felt media manipulated:
tv, radio, newspaper, mobile, computer.. ad infinitum!
Besieged by endless...

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The Lie

I am an insect waiting to be squashed!

I stare hard at the ground
as if fascinated, enthralled by it
while, above, eyes of cold-cobalt  
wait to gouge and burrow out 
any self-belief that might still...

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The Expert in Death

She reluctantly closed the book,
locking the painting back inside her mind,
then a sudden frisson of emotion,
another surreal-reveal moment,
and her smile was flint; lips unmoving
as slices of memory were being served…cold.
 
The relationship...

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The Shed...

was Granddad's before he died.
And now its loneliness reached out to the boy
from the shaded, shuffling shadows 
that shushed the sheltered garden.
They pulled and tugged at his guilt-filled absence
until he slink-slunk down through the...

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Broken Shadows

She has always had an energetic thirst for life
but now incurious thoughts are strung across her mind
and there they hang, a washing line of confusion
until a nudge of stretching shadows ripple her soul.
And the...

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A Sensitive Man

He was the sensitive, hushed type
whose character was often folded  
inside his pocket, rather than on display.
He always felt different but adhered to the rules:
school, college and now work.
Politeness followed him courteously...

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Buttered Fields
 
It was early when she was tickled awake
as light eased under the eaves
to trickle through a sigh of curtains,
to whisper across the bedroom floor,
to nudgingly nestle beside her…..and beam!
 
Outside the sun had...

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The Lone Tree

The autumn day had been muffled up
in thick scarf and rainproof jacket
until darkness, countryside darkness,
clambered gradually over the horizon;
silence, stillness obediently at its heel.
Then black the night, wild the sea
and the lone tree...

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Further Along

Further along you might know some of the answers, 
further along perhaps you will understand the why.

We met on a corner of an afternoon 
where the sun had stopped to shine; 
you smiled a...

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A Study in Character

My aunt…. 
wears jewellery that winks as she walks
and she always has a sharp, shivery look
that you pay attention to …just in case!
She makes the world around her nervous
and I can hear...

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Morning Turns the Page

Night lies softly across the beach,
as delicate as a black, silken scarf,
while, underneath its dark veil,
the sea is blue tissue paper 
with whitened finger tips
wrapping an early morning present.
Then night, like nature’s...

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The Leaves are Hushed

Alone
she stares through a skylight
playing I spy with the sky,
creating fantastical creatures
out of skimming, brimming clouds.

Suddenly 
a shadow swiftly smears a window
staining its filmy, hazed glass;
a corrugated feeling, firm and undulating
settles steel-hard...

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My Father’s Hand!

My father left me when I was a baby
and all that remained of him… was his hand! 
The hand that edged its way
into the last photo he took of me!
As I grew, I...

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The Journey

The journey had been long, 
the path had been narrow,
the afternoon was shortening
and my destination crept closer.
I walked on.

The path still strolled ahead of me
and no matter how fast I travelled -
that fact never...

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She Wanted More!

He shut the car door with a hush;
she closed her side of the car with a statement.
He slipped into his seat belt in a measured sense;
she slapped-snapped her seat belt on.. in relief.
He...

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We met in yonder tavern
hay up top o' meikle hill
bousing  nappy til a' fou
the nite drave on wi' rairing voices
an the nappy growing better
a souter gars a bet wi' lades o' siller
the deil laughs...

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I Tried to Unlearn

……. his name , his face, his memory
but each morning they kept resurfacing;
rubber ringed feelings that would not sink 
no matter how hard I pushed down.

So I journeyed to places 
that had...

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