Description

In these poems Donald S. Murray writes with wonderful wit and a real sense of intimacy of men and women from the Western Isles to Shetland whose characters, for generations, have been carved and weathered by the sea that fills their harbours, scours their shorelines and colours their perceptions of the world.

OUT OF PRINT

HARVEST OF WHALES 

When the minister spoke of Jonah, they could see
whales stretched across Minch to mainland - back to back
- a causeway they could step on
if they were spouted free

From the kirk's dark entrails, ribs of pews,
the doorway that had gorged them,
glassy eyes of windows,
the minister who soaked them with his spume,

And be instead among them: threading spears
to stretch webs lacing giants in their traps,
aware that red tide had released them - their lives would not be held
in Hunger's thundering belly once again this year.