Gerry Loose
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
Gerry Loose lives on a boat close to the Royal Navy’s nuclear submarine weapons base at Faslane in Gare Loch, on the Highland Fault Line in Scotland. He’s currently writing about the flora, fauna, language, geology, human ecology & politics of that area. He’s the author of various books of poetry, the latest being that person himself (Shearsman 2009). ( www.gerryloose.com & http://saariseasons.blogspot.com )