Eday, North Isles

GUITH
a greylag morning,
the sea a conscious blue.

CALF SOUND
orca
in a sea blue room,
breathing pearls that rise to the surface.

GROATHA
the plenum of the shed:
every part infilled with flutter,
glass, sheep turd, gusts of damp.

GREENTOFT
gunshot punctures a field
of geese, their clackety rise
a flock of helicopters.

THE SETTER STONE
an old man steps out of the ground
all lines and angles,
sun snagged in his beard.

MILLCROFT
a tree softened house:
red willow, alder, pine,
eucalyptus rooting.

WARNESS
a stream hole
a pure, dense fall;
one ocean falling into another.

PLANTATION
wren, silver lark, crow
woody snipe, curlew, hen hawk
day owl, starling.

SOUTH END
the Varagen, beaded with spotlights
curves through the dark
round great holes in the sea

WARD HILL
climbing with the moon,
the wind blowing round my mouth—
a low note, like an owl.