KEITH Murray of Aberdeen catches the spirit of the opening month of the New Year, a time for endurance, perhaps, rather than enjoyment.

JANUARY

Bill and bank statement,

dental appointment,

these are the letters

delivered today

and the postman departed

with the wind under grey clouds,

bare branches above him

clawing their way,

their thin vein-like sculptures

blackened by cold,

and my watch slowly ticking

and me growing old

ever so slowly ever so slightly

and a crow kraaing kraaing

seems to say

January January.