Poem
WN Herbert
THE FOGBOW
THE FOGBOW
THE FOGBOW
Ghaist o a gaw that few hae seenpaintit on fog lyk a fugue o thi scheme
Noah supposit thi Lord tae mean
when aa were drooned,
ither hauf o yin o His een
thon runic roond.
Rope o smoke lyk a loop on a cable,
Grisaille Cain tae thi rainbow's Abel,
ultra-blank tae infra-sable,
auld noose o tow;
Yin that's strang whaur Yang is faible:
faur are ye now?
© 2012, WN Herbert
From: Omnesia
Publisher: Bloodaxe Books, Northumberland
Gaw–bruise, rainbow; faible–feeble; faur–where.
From: Omnesia
Publisher: Bloodaxe Books, Northumberland
WN Herbert
(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1961)
WN Herbert – called by Don Paterson “One maverick genius of a compatriot” – is a prolific, and prolifically virtuosic, poet, both influential in contemporary Scottish poetry and also inimitable. Following on from the previous generation of poets like MacDiarmid and Edwin Morgan, he writes in the Scots dialect as well as in exuberant, inventive English. One of his subjects, whatever his poem is ...
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THE FOGBOW
Ghaist o a gaw that few hae seenpaintit on fog lyk a fugue o thi scheme
Noah supposit thi Lord tae mean
when aa were drooned,
ither hauf o yin o His een
thon runic roond.
Rope o smoke lyk a loop on a cable,
Grisaille Cain tae thi rainbow's Abel,
ultra-blank tae infra-sable,
auld noose o tow;
Yin that's strang whaur Yang is faible:
faur are ye now?
From: Omnesia
Gaw–bruise, rainbow; faible–feeble; faur–where.
THE FOGBOW
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