NORMAN MacCaig offers enigmatic gifts -but ones he thinks will make the recipient smile.

The piece comes from his Collected Poems, the admirable posthumous volume edited by his son Ewen and published by Polygon.

PRESENTS

I give you an emptiness,

I give you a plenitude.

Unwrap them carefully -

one's as fragile as the other -

and when you thank me

I'll pretend not to notice the doubt in your voice

when you say they're just what you wanted.

Put them on the table by your bed.

When you wake in the morning

they'll have gone through the door of sleep

into your head. Wherever you go

they'll go with you and

wherever you are you'll wonder,

smiling, about the fullness

you can't add to and the emptiness

that you can fill.