A poem of love and yearning with a positive ending, with blackbirds acting as a background chorus. It comes from Edwin Morgan’s Collected Poems (Carcanet, £14.95).
BLACKBIRDS
Uncertain darkness
and a blackbird sweetness
are the best of day.
It is not to be measured
when I am lonely
staring out
at each squeal of brakes
as the buses pass
and you are not there.
The beauty strokes
the rooms I prowl through
with such pain,
at the end of day.
And I groan to no one,
crouch by the window
as two blackbirds swoop
by the darkening grass
in their gladness.
What use is my house
when the light is gone
from the hearth
and I have no shame
crying your name,
no shame praying
for your return,
and for your safety,
and even for whatever
you could wish or lack
in this world, my love,
to leave me or
to find a better.
I cannot find
a better one.
I’m in this place
till the shameless tears
on my cheeks are dry
and the night breaks up
and you are on your way
with the sun – my best of day.
1967
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here