A TYPICAL literary outing by Norman MacCaig, combining charmingly whimsical observation of nature with a philosophical undercurrent. The piece is included in the admirable posthumous compilation, The Poems of Norman MacCaig, edited by his son Ewen (Polygon, £25 hardback).
AN ORDINARY DAY
I took my mind a walk
or my mind took me a walk –
whichever was the truth of it.
The light glittered on the water
or the water glittered in the light.
Cormorants stood on a tidal rock
with their wings spread out,
stopping no traffic. Various ducks
shilly-shallied here and there
on the shilly-shallying water.
An occasional gull yelped. Small flowers
were doing their level best
to bring to their kerb bees like
aerial charabancs. Long weeds in the clear
water did Eastern dances, unregarded
by shoals of darning needles. A cow
started a moo but thought
better of it . . . And my feet took me home
and my mind observed to me,
or I to it, how ordinary
extraordinary things are or
how extraordinary ordinary
things are, like the nature of the mind
and the process of observing.
June 1964
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