A modern Scottish love song from the pen of Norman MacCaig.
Written in the summer of 1972, it is in the magisterial collection of his poems edited by his son Ewen (Polygon, £19.99 paperback).
MORNING SONG
Morning, and something scratches
at the door of my mind.
Inside the door
you walk windy streets, you wash dishes,
you sit with astonishing books in your hand.
I want to praise your movements that are
so musical, so thrifty, and your stillness
that is so musical, so generous.
Though no birds sing, it's as if
birds were singing in the sweetest
of consort and it's your light
that fingers so gently
the brutal shapes and the delicate shapes
of the world. I want to tell you
how impossible it is
not to tell you how impossible
it is to tell you of the mornings
you make of this morning.
Something scratched
at the door of my mind.
I have let it in.
I make you a present of it.
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