NORMAN MacCaig gives his subject a blue hue rather than the normally perceived purplish-red.
The little paean to his favourite heather, written with customary charm, can be found in the posthumous collection of his poems edited by his son Ewen and published by Polygon.
BELL HEATHER
People make songs about your big cousin
Extravagantly sprawled over mountain after mountain.
They tear him up and he goes off to England
On the bumpers of cars, on shiny radiators.
But you're more beautiful and you blossom first,
In square feet and raggedy circles.
Your blue travels a hundred yards
That are a main road for bees.
If I were an adder, I'd choose you
For my royal palace. My sliding tongue
Would savour the thin scent
Of your boudoirs and banqueting halls.
A modest immodesty is a good thing,
Little blaze of blue on a rock face.
I'll try it myself. Will the bees come,
The wild bees, with their white noses?
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