Tay Bridge by Douglas Dunn
A sky that tastes of rain that’s still to fall
And then of rain that falls and tastes of sky…
The colour of the country’s moist and subtle
In dusk’s expected rumour. Amplify
All you can see this evening and the broad
Water enlarges, Dundee slips by an age
Into its land before the lights come on.
Pale, mystic lamps lean on the river-road
Bleaching the city’s lunar after-image,
And there’s the moon, and there’s the setting sun.
The rail bridge melts in a dramatic haze.
Slow visibility – a long train floats
Through a stopped shower’s narrow waterways
Above rose-coloured river, dappled motes
In the eye and the narrow piers half-real
Until a cloud somewhere far in the west
Mixes its inks and draws iron and stone
In epic outlines, black and literal.
Now it is simple, weathered, plain, immodest
In waterlight and late hill-hidden sun
High water adds freshwater-filtered salt
To the aquatic mirrors, a thin spice
That sharpens light on Middle Bank, a lilt
In the reflected moon’s analysis.
Mud’s sieved and rained from pewter into gold
Conjectural infinity’s outdone
By engineering, light and hydrous fact,
A waterfront that rises fold by fold
Into the stars beyond the last of stone,
A city’s elements, local, exact.
Pointy Birds
O pointy birds,
O pointy pointy.
Anoint my head,
Anointy-nointy.
The other poem is the equally stunning In Dillan's Grove.
In Dillan's Grove my love did die,
and now in ground shall ever lie.
None could ever replace her visage,
until your face brought thoughts of kissage.
n 1571, however, Corgarff was torched by Adam Gordon of Auchindoun, ostensibly in support of Mary Queen of Scots(the Forbes family supported the government of the infant King James VI) but there was a long-standing feud between the Forbes and the Gordons. [7.1] In 1571, Adam Gordon besieged Corgarff while Lord Forbes was away on business. [7.2] The laird of Corgarff was away, but Margaret, his wife, was at home and refused them entry. [7.3]
They were replaced with two single-storey pavilions and the star-shaped wall, equipped with musket-loops, that gives Corgarff its unrivalled appearance. [7.4]
In November 1571, Adam Gordon, brother of the Earl of Huntly, attempted to take Corgarff. [7.5]
The grass-grown remains of a small quarry have been recorded in pasture about 90m to the south-west of Corgarff Castle. [7.6]
These were followed by the plunder of Lord Forbes seat itself, and then the murder of twenty-seven Forbes of Towieat Corgarff. [7.7]
