Long Tartans Poems

HEROES

Near somber guards, units of children heap 
dead leaves, naive to any else fallen.
Friend, you chuckle, but your posture speaks
of duty on this day of contradictions.

Firefighters bow heads in silent paean, 
while polished trucks stand...

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Clans, Ilks and Tartans

Woven into threads of red and black,
Girded by grids of white,
Distant plaintive bagpipe memories
Of sunset over Kilmaurs –
A crest that bears a unicorn
Touches royal roots
As a poet’s tribute to a patron lost
Watches...

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I love your heathered highlands,
steep cliffs and rugged islands,
hedges and gardens under
rainclouds of grey.
Old steeples rise above
those small rural towns I love;
your hillsides of sunny yellow,
rolled bales of hay.

	Pipers will play their part
	stirring each Scottish...

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SCOTLAND

Very big sign on highway A1   going southways    
Out of Scotland into England,  
Painted with thistles, tartans, bagpipes,  says
“Haste ye back to bonnie Scotland”.
The  other side of...

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My door is open
I welcome you
To my Highland lands
Off heathers and hue
 
Cross the bridge
Of centuries old
To my castle of grey
In it's regal fold
 
Stand with me
In the great hall of my past
Like generations
Us Fraser's...

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Villanelle: French Gourmand once sailed to the Isle of Ewe
  
     Dedicated to the great French actor, Off Course!

French Gourmand once sailed to the Isle of Ewe
Must you invite high...

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16th April 1746
The day a country ceased to exist
British Army, Hanoverian scum
Defeated our Jacobite's
Scotland is on the run
 
Our Tartans banished, bagpipes no more
To lead our troops, to frighten the foe
Cumberland's men hunt us down
In...

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16th April 1746
The day a country ceased to exist
British Army, Hanoverian scum
Defeated our Jacobite's
Scotland's is on the run
 
Our Tartans banished, bagpipes no more
To lead our troops, to frighten the foe
Cumberland's men hunt us down
In...

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A new day awakens in a bonnie Scottish Glen
As I await the morning sunshine peeking over the Ben
Standing at the door of my centuries old croft
The wild fern's arise as the rays makes them loft

A...

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Tradition and dress
A nations finesse
Symbolic in style
By a country mile
 
The drone of the pipes
Tartan clad
Bonnie on the girls
Proud on the lads
 
Highland dancers
In kilted skirts 
Grooms at weddings
Kilt and dirk

But our Tartan and Pipes
Go...

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Igneous stones
All greyed with age
Scatter the hillside
In greened moss stage
 
Forests of pine
Patch blankets of tree's
Fenced from the deer
Who eat as they please
 
Heather bloomed purples
Carpet the ground
Ferns like fans
In the winds, rebound
 
Mountains of...

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Weekend away in medieval castle
Traveling to Scotland on overnight train
Read the account of Culloden battle
Highlanders lost cherished domain.

Eyes feeling heavy am swept away
living the moment from long ago
Brave clan tartans fought that day
Historically painful tale...

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Holed up in a Scottish flat
all day from six to three,
stuffin' my gob with Vol-au-vent
and pots of English tea.
As ocean slaps the briny stones
and swirls the salty air,
I'd rather be in my own home
than sitting...

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spring joy

day breaks in coral
 dawn and white rose share secrets ~
  dewdrops sprinkle glitz

fog spills over hills
 winds of change swirl wispy clouds ~
  doves coo limericks

bountiful spring rains
 wild oats take...

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