GEORGE Bruce (1909-2002) reaches back to his childhood in the northern fishing town of Fraserburgh for this atmospheric piece.
He, one may suppose, is the enchanted child. The poem can be found in Today Tomorrow, the fine compendium of his Collected Poems 1933-2000 (Polygon, £14.99 paperback).
GOOD MORNING
Feet squelch on a brown Monday morning
that hasn't had time to put its face on.
Gutters run. A bus washes the corner with mud.
A child, nose flattened against the glass,
sees the world new. In his heaving ship
churned-up slush is a wake of creaming waves.
A woman in a green hat, stuttering on high heels,
is Spring. I am in his looking glass and hear
hooves' thump of lambs' dance on thin turf.
It pushes them up into the blowing sky.
As the boat moves out smooth beyond the cliff head
my long drowned innocence rises and breathes again.
Those aboard have no truck with water,
which has killed their generations, but to hunt fish.
It is nothing but a use that will exercise cruelty
as wanton as malformation. 'Good morning!'
Is this then a lie that the absurd face at the pane
conveys, seeing miracles where there are none,
but that the eyes are wonders.
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 hereComments are closed on this article